The results of real world car-following structures on a test vehicle having a control stick with a tactile aiding device instead of the conventional steering wheel are described. The control stick is used for steering, acceleration and braking. It contains a finger in the head of it which indicated to the driver when either of the latter two actions is necessary in the car-following situation. Phantom and lead car experiments were conducted using the driving stick at various aiding rations and sensitivities. Average headway variance and average velocity variance were tested to determine effectiveness of the tactile aid of long and short headways and to reaffirm that car-following performance is improved with the tactile controller. Reductions in velocity and headway variance of 70% and 95% were obtained for the tactile aided case relative to the unaided val. (BPR) Bureau of Public Roads (US) -A).
Abstract