The Application of Driver Models in the Safety Assessment of Autonomous Vehicles: Perspectives, Insights, Prospects

Driver models play a vital role in developing and verifying autonomous vehicles (AVs). Previously, they were mainly applied in traffic flow simulation to model driver behavior. With the development of AVs, driver models attract much attention again due to their potential contributions to AV safety assessment. The simulation-based testing method is an effective measure to accelerate AV testing due to its safe and efficient characteristics. Nonetheless, realistic driver models are prerequisites for valid simulation results. Additionally, an AV is assumed to be at least as safe as a careful and competent driver, which is modeled by driver models as well. Therefore, driver models are essential for AV safety assessment from the current perspective. However, no comparison or discussion of driver models is available regarding their utility to AVs in the last five years despite their necessities in the release of AVs. This motivates us to present a comprehensive survey of driver models in the paper and compare their applicability. Requirements for driver models as applied to AV safety assessment are discussed. A summary of driver models for simulation-based testing and AV benchmarks is provided. Evaluation metrics are defined to compare their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, potential gaps in existing driver models are identified, which provide direction for future work. This study gives related researchers especially regulators an overview and helps them to define appropriate driver models for AV safety assessment.