Modelling driver behaviour with intelligent vehicle systems in motorways and urban environments

Abstract

Intelligent vehicle systems and automated vehicles can contribute to reducing traffic congestion and accidents. Empirical findings have shown that intelligent vehicle systems might have both intended and unintended impacts on driver behaviour. Notwithstanding the potential effects on traffic operations, most microscopic traffic flow models currently used to evaluate the impact of intelligent vehicle systems do not describe driver responses accurately. To increase the realism and predictive ability of these models, my research aims to incorporate human behaviour elements based on empirical data and theories developed in human factors and traffic psychology. This seminar presents findings based on naturalistic driving studies and on-road experiments with full-range adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane-keeping systems (LKS). The models developed predict driver choices to resume manual control with ACC, driver adaptations to an automatic incident detection system, driver responses to pedestrian crossing, and driver speeding with ACC and LKS. These models can be used to forecast driver response to intelligent vehicle systems and can be implemented into microscopic traffic flow simulations to evaluate the impact of these systems on traffic operations.

About the speaker

Silvia Varotto is an assistant professor at the Transport and Traffic Engineering Laboratory (LICIT-ECO7) of École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (France). Her main research interest is developing advanced mathematical models that realistically capture the decision making of individuals and can be implemented into simulations to assess the impact of cutting-edge technologies on the transportation system. In 2021-2022, she was a postdoctoral researcher in discrete choice modelling in transportation at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). She worked as a researcher in human factors in vehicle automation at SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (the Netherlands) from 2018 to 2021. In 2018, she obtained her PhD at Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) with her thesis titled “Driver behaviour during control transitions between Adaptive Cruise Control and manual driving: empirics and models”. She received her BSc and MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Trieste (Italy).

This seminar is supported by the MicroITS project sponsored by Chalmers Transport Area of Advance.