A Driving Simulator Study on Adaptive Cruise Control Failure

Adaptive cruise control automatically adjusts vehicle speed and distance to a preceding vehicle, thus enhancing driver comfort and safety. Previous studies have shown that adaptive cruise control induces positive behavioral adaptation by drawing consistency in driving speed and headway-time regardless of driving styles. However, the studies have also shown that the drivers' reliance on the system induced negative adaptation including reduced lane keeping ability and reduced attention during driving. This study further investigated effect of negative behavioral adaptation to adaptive cruise control. Failure of adaptive cruise control was simulated using a full-scale driving simulator and driver behavior under the simulated failure was studied. Twenty drivers participated in the study to compare reaction time, distance between the cars, and eye movement. Three different driving scenarios were used: adaptive cruise control off, adaptive cruise control on and adaptive cruise control on followed by braking algorithm failure. Experiment results showed that the drivers took longer time to recognize and react to sudden speed reduction by the car ahead when driving with adaptive cruise control and even longer when adaptive cruise control failed. This indicates potential danger of negative behavioral adaptation to adaptive cruise control and requires prevention strategy such as education and public awareness