Supporting drivers in car following: A step towards cooperative driving

A car following assisting system named as Rear Window Notification Display (RWND) is developed in order to assist drivers to interact effectively with vehicles equipped with Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) systems. The interface quantifies the acceleration of the instrumented lead car and the following distance in an intuitive way for the human driver on the rear window of the leader. Results of tests with human subjects in a driving simulator indicate that this interface reduces time headway and decreases the variance in time headway that drivers adopt, especially in manoeuvres that involve short term speed changes of the leading car. This system can accelerate the introduction of cooperative driving due to its effectiveness with low penetration rates.