Driving with an Adaptive Cruise Control System

A driving simulator is a computer-controlled tool to study an interface between a driver and vehicle response by enabling the driver to participate in judging vehicle characteristics. Using the driving simulator, human factor study, vehicle system development and other research can be effectively done under controllable, reproducible and non-dangerous conditions. An Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system is generally regarded as a system that can be achieved in the near future without the demanding infrastructure components and technologies. ACC system is an automatic vehicle following system with no human engagement in the longitudinal vehicle direction. And the influence of the driver is substantial in developing the system. Driving characteristic is very different according to the accident riskiness, gender, age and so on. In this research, experiments have been carried out to investigate driving characteristics with the ACC system, using a driving simulator. Participants are 21 male and 19 female. Driving characteristics such as preferred headway-time, lane keeping ability, eye direction, and head movement have been observed and compared between the driving with ACC and the driving without ACC.