An experiment was executed in a driving simulator to investigate the limits of drivers to exit a lane for Automatic Vehicle Guidance (AVG). The question was: which level of control take-over is best for drivers. Three levels were defined: (1) low support: control was handed over immediately from AGV to human driver after a button press; (2) medium support: control was handed over after the AGV found an appropriate gap in the non-AVG lane; and (3) high support: steering control was handed over after AGV found a proper gap, but AVG still adjusted speed and headway with respect to the non-AVG lane traffic during the lane change manoeuvre. There were three AVG speeds, factorially combined with two speeds in the nearby non-AVG lane, combined with low, intermediate or high traffic density. Handing-over condition was a between-subjects factor (3 x 8 subjects). It was found that subjects were able to take over control from the AGV and merge into a non-AGV lane, even in high-speed and high-density conditions. It appeared that a relative low speed of the non-AGV lane compared to the AGV lane caused dangerous situations and should be avoided. High support was found to be most comfortable, but the usefulness of the system was rated less high in such a situation. It was found that the angular speed as decision criterion for lane change was not constant across various traffic densities. (A)
Samenvatting