Technische Universität Braunschweig, Department of Engineering and Traffic Psychology, Gaussstrasse 23, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
Accid Anal Prev. 2010 Nov;42(6):2158-64. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2010.07.009. Epub 2010 Aug 7.
The purpose of this study was to better understand the causes of driver errors in the context of rear-end crashes. When drivers move in traffic they generate an overall assessment of the driving situation and what will happen in the near future. Certain cues in the traffic environment may create an expectation that some specific action is required. The more relevant cues are present, the more the driver will expect that some kind of intervention may be required. In contrary, if hardly any or no relevant cues are present, the driver does not anticipate that an imminent reaction will be necessary. This idea is supported by results from accident analyses which showed that in many cases, rear-end crashes occur in situations which are usually easy to handle (e.g. straight roads, low traffic density). In these situations, drivers may not anticipate that the driver in front will brake and they are thus following too closely to be able to react in time when the front vehicle suddenly brakes or stops. In order to test this hypothesis experimentally, in a driving simulator experiment different expectations were generated by varying the behaviour of a lead car (different braking behaviour, signalling or not before a turn). Driver behaviour was examined after these variations. The analyses partially confirm the influence of different expectations generated by the lead car's behaviour in the first phase of the scenario. Drivers with a respective expectation reacted faster when the car in front suddenly braked and signalled their manoeuvre before turning right at an intersection. However, during a car following phase, drivers did not adapt their speed or distance depending on this expectation. These results can be used to adapt a driver assistance system in car following situations. This should warn and intervene, especially in cases when drivers do not foresee the need for action and therefore cannot react in time.
本研究旨在更好地理解追尾事故中驾驶员失误的原因。当驾驶员在交通中行驶时，他们会对驾驶情况和近期将要发生的情况做出全面评估。交通环境中的某些提示可能会产生某种特定操作的预期。交通环境中存在的提示越相关，驾驶员就越会预期可能需要进行某种干预。相反，如果几乎没有或没有相关提示，驾驶员就不会预期需要立即做出反应。这一观点得到事故分析结果的支持，这些结果表明，在许多情况下，追尾事故发生在通常很容易处理的情况下（例如直路、低交通密度）。在这些情况下，驾驶员可能不会预期前车会刹车，因此跟车太近，以至于无法在前方车辆突然刹车或停车时及时做出反应。为了通过实验验证这一假设，在驾驶模拟器实验中，通过改变前车的行为（不同的刹车行为、转弯前是否有信号）来产生不同的预期。然后检查驾驶员在这些变化后的行为。分析结果部分证实了前车行为在情景第一阶段产生的不同预期的影响。当前面的汽车突然刹车并在右转进入十字路口前发出信号时，有相应预期的驾驶员反应更快。然而，在跟车阶段，驾驶员不会根据这种预期来调整他们的速度或距离。这些结果可用于在跟车情况下自适应驾驶员辅助系统。该系统应发出警告并进行干预，尤其是在驾驶员无法预见需要采取行动并且因此无法及时做出反应的情况下。
