Changing the Perspective: Assessing the Controllability of Minimal Risk Maneuvers for Surrounding Traffic Participants

Abstract

A mixed traffic consisting of manual and automated vehicles will be part of reality in the near future. Vehicles of higher automation levels, which will have the ability to perform minimal risk maneuvers, will also participate in this traffic. Previous research in this area has focused on the interaction within the automated vehicle and a change of perspective was therefore carried out in this study. Three different maneuvers were evaluated from two perspectives of the surrounding traffic with regard to their controllability. A new method was used to evaluate the driving performance individually. The results of the driving simulator study with 35 participants show that an MRM in the form of a lane change coupled with a standstill on the shoulder lane is the most controllable. The results are consistent from both investigated perspectives.