After you: Merging at Highway On-Ramps

Abstract

Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication offer new possibilities for cooperatively interactive driving. It enables vehicles to carry out maneuvers cooperatively with other vehicles. However, these maneuvers have to be predictable and understandable to a human driver to prevent the driver from intervening with the automation. In a video-based study, we investigated potential influencing factors on the willingness to behave cooperatively in an on-ramp situation on a highway: the situation’s criticality for the lane-changing vehicle, the way the intention to change the lane was indicated and the scope of action. Moreover, we asked participants to rate their perceived criticality. Participants preferred to change lanes to the left or decelerate to let the other vehicle merge in front of them. If a lane change was not possible, participants rated the situation as more critical. These results are useful for the developing process of human-machine interfaces for cooperatively interacting vehicles.