Behavioural aspects of Automatic Vehicle Guidance (AVG) : the relationship between headway and driver comfort

Describes method and results of an simulator experiment to assess the relationship between headways and acceptibility, in order to study the acceptability of short headways in an automated traffic system compared to manual driving. The experiment consisted of two parts: in one part subjects gave a subjective comfort rating about the condition they were driving in, while in the other part subjects were allowed to adjust the headway to a comfortable level. Furthermore subjects drove the simulator manually before and after each AVG session, rating the comfort level in a number of traffic conditions. Based on the results of the experiment, recommendations are made for the design headway of a comfortable AGV system.