Field Operational Test "The Assisted Driver"

In order to get a better understanding of how driving with advanced driver assistance (ADA) systems effects traffic flow in terms of safety, throughput and environment in practice a field operational test (FOT), called "the assisted driver" was conducted by the dutch road authority Rijkswaterstaat in The Netherlands. The main component of this project was the so-called full traffic FOT in which 20 cars, equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane departure warning, were driven in mixed traffic for five months. During this period a vast amount of data was collected by installed data-loggers in order to perform an objective impact assessment. The results are quite promising. Driving with ACC and LDW improves traffic safety with approximately 8% and fuel consumption decreases with 3%. Associated emissions can decrease up to 10% and there seems to be no direct negative effect for throughput.