Definition of the accepted driving performance threshold for automated driving
Despite often high multiple loads, drivers are able to defuse situations that are considered critical by using driving strategies. Studies conducted in the past have shown that this applies both to driving with conventional vehicles and to takeover situations in automated driving. The prerequisite is that trajectory areas on the road can be determined that drivers subjectively evaluate as appropriate. Based on this, the relevance of action in automated driving should now be investigated in the case of deviations from the accepted driving performance threshold in terms of activating driver strategies. BASt entrusted the Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) at RWTH Aachen University with this task. The results are to be incorporated into the recommendations for the development of automated driving functions.
Overall, the results of the studies indicate that adaptive mechanisms in the trajectory planning of automated systems can be fundamentally useful for increasing comfort and safety. The future system should act proactively and adjust the automated trajectory so that it lies within a range that drivers consider comfortable. The system-side adaptation should take place at least 2 seconds before a critical situation (because drivers intervene themselves afterwards) and adapt to the driver’s preferred action (steering or braking) in the same situation.