Lateral control assistance and driver behavior in emergency situations

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are designed to help drivers improve driving safety. However, automation modifying the way drivers interact with their vehicle, it is important to avoid negative safety impacts. In particular, the change in drivers’ behavior introduced by ADAS in situations they are not designed for, should be carefully examined. We carried out an experiment on a driving simulator to study drivers’ reaction in an obstacle avoidance situation, when using a lateral control assistance system. A detailed analysis of the avoidance maneuver is presented. Results show that assisted and non-assisted drivers equally succeeded in avoiding the obstacle. However, further analyses tend to show an influence of the assistance system on drivers’ first reaction.