Steering Behavior with Different Levels of Automation Interventions for Avoiding Collisions During Lane Change

This paper investigated how different types of automation interventions affect tactical driving behavior during lane changes. Previous research indicates that drivers trust and accept the automation as long as they have the final authority over the system. However, the need for automation to be allowed to act autonomously in some time-critical situations has also been observed. This emerged the need for a system that is able to provide more than one type of assistance function depending on the situation. How drivers trust, accept, and interact with such multiple assistance functions is crucial for system effectiveness in terms of safety. A total of 40 participants were assigned to drive in an advanced driving simulator and encounter several critical lane change scenarios under one of four driving modes: unsupported driving; haptic steering control system; automatic steering control system; and integrated steering control system that comprises both haptic and automatic steering control assistance. Measures of trust in and acceptance of the systems were recorded with questionnaires. The results showed that the integrated steering control mode was efficient in terms of safety and able to attenuate the negative effects of both haptic and automatic systems.