Autonomous Vehicles: Disengagements, Accidents and Reaction Times

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles are being viewed with scepticism in their ability to improve safety and the driving experience. A critical issue with automated driving at this stage of its development is that it is not yet reliable and safe. When automated driving fails, or is limited, the autonomous mode disengages and the drivers are expected to resume manual driving. For this transition to occur safely, it is imperative that drivers react in an appropriate and timely manner. Recent data released from the California trials provide compelling insights into the current factors influencing disengagements of autonomous mode. Here we show that the number of accidents observed has a significantly high correlation with the autonomous miles travelled. The reaction times to take control of the vehicle in the event of a disengagement was found to have a stable distribution across different companies at 0.83 seconds on average. However, there were differences observed in reaction times based on the type of disengagements, type of roadway and autonomous miles travelled. Lack of trust caused by the exposure to automated disengagements was found to increase the likelihood to take control of the vehicle manually. Further, with increased vehicle miles travelled the reaction times were found to increase, which suggests an increased level of trust with more vehicle miles travelled. We believe that this research would provide insurers, planners, traffic management officials and engineers fundamental insights into trust and reaction times that would help them design and engineer their systems.

Policy and society related implications of automated driving: A review of literature and directions for future research

“…Markvollrath, Schleicher, and Gelau (2011) reported delayed reactions (i.e. speed reduction) for ACC users when approaching curves or entering fog, while Dixit, Chand, and Nair (2016) showed that reaction times in taking control of the vehicle after disengagement of the autonomous mode increases with vehicle miles travelled. Xiong, Boyle, Moeckli, Dow, and Brown (2012) showed that drivers' adaptive behaviorand therefore the safety implications of ACC-is related to trust in automation, driving styles, understanding of system operations and the driver's personality.…”

Studying the Safety Impact of Autonomous Vehicles Using Simulation-Based Surrogate Safety Measures

“…Recent research suggested that current levels of technology from frontrunners like Google and Mercedes-Benz still experience malfunctions that require the need for human intervention [16]. Further issues arise with regard to the amount of miles the cars will need to be tested for in order to obtain statistically relevant data to demonstrate the vehicles' safety.…”

“…Rau et al [17] developed a method to identify crashes, which could be addressed by AV technology, by mapping automated vehicle functions to five layers of crash information (location, precrash scenario, driving conditions, travel speed, and driver condition). Real-world data from AV testing in California has increasingly been utilised in recent research [16,[18][19][20]. For example, Schoettle and Sivak [18] found that AVs were not at fault in any crashes and the overall injury severity was lower for crashes involving AVs than for crashes involving human-driven vehicles (HVs).…”

Bifurcation of Lane Change and Control on Highway for Tractor-Semitrailer under Rainy Weather

“…The convenient calculations still deviate greatly from reality. Second, previous research on vehicles' characteristics has concentrated on steady steering [53][54][55][56]. However, lane changes and overtaking by heavy trucks on highways, as a frequent driving behavior, could gain more attention in the near future.…”