Highway Chauffeur: state of the art and future evaluations : Implementation scenarios and impact assessment

A transition phase is currently featuring the automotive world, with the car being everyday less a simple tool and more an active assistant for the driver. Many automated functions are already implemented in cars (e.g. Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keeping Assistant, etc.); the very next step towards a fully automated vehicle is represented by the deployment of a car able to handle both longitudinal and lateral control for a limited amount of time, keeping the driver out of the driving loop and effectively accomplishing the driving task in a well-defined domain. The Highway Chauffeur system falls in this category and is, therefore, a perfect candidate to move another step towards full automation. Scope of this paper is to define some of the most well-established implementation scenarios on the basis of a bibliographical review. This activity is aimed at identifying the operational schemes most likely to happen in the near future which are, then, employed to derive some of the most relevant research questions to assess the future impact of the system on Traffic Efficiency and Environment.