A considerable improvement in capacity and safety can be achieved by highway automation. One design for such automation, which involves a dual-mode system whereby a vehicle is manually controlled on non-automated roads and automatically controlled on automated ones, is first described. A progress report on various experimental studies relevant to this design is presented. The difficulties associated with two approaches to vehicle automatic steering are defined. A suggested partial solution that resulted in successful vehicle automatic steering at high speeds on the interstate highway is presented. A scheme for automatic vehicle longitudinal control is outlined, and test data from lead-car overtaking and emergency braking studies are given. The results of a continuing study of automatic merging are presented. An approach to improving the performance of the driver- vehicle system during the interim period between non- automated and fully automated highways is discussed. /author/
Samenvatting