Safety issues in intelligent cruise control

The design of modern control concepts is a very important contribution to introducing automation systems into future traffic patterns. Here, first a strategy for autonomous intelligent cruise control, keeping a velocity dependent distance in order to provide automatically a constant time-headway is described. However, in the case of emergency, intelligent cruise control systems, which are especially designed for smooth driving maneuvers, are not sufficient to decelerate a vehicle in time. Here, an appropriate extension for intelligent cruise controllers is described, which will take over, as soon as a sudden braking maneuver is necessary. The algorithms included in this emergency control system are based on the comparison of the distances required for braking, regarding a preceding car and the automated vehicle, which is following. In this context, a strategy for switching between the two control systems is described. In the switching moment a sudden jerk in the longitudinal dynamics of the car as well as chattering is avoided