Quantifying the Individual Differences of Driver' Risk Perception with Just Four Interpretable Parameters

TL;DR

This paper introduces PODAR, a simple, interpretable model with four parameters that effectively captures individual differences in drivers' risk perception, aiding the development of human-like autonomous vehicle behaviors.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, physically meaningful risk perception model with four parameters, calibrated on experimental data, to quantify individual differences among drivers.

Findings

PODAR accurately models individual risk perception differences.

Four parameters effectively capture driver-specific risk attitudes.

Model demonstrates potential for human-like autonomous driving behaviors.

Abstract

There will be a long time when automated vehicles are mixed with human-driven vehicles. Understanding how drivers assess driving risks and modelling their individual differences are significant for automated vehicles to develop human-like and customized behaviors, so as to gain people's trust and acceptance. However, the reality is that existing driving risk models are developed at a statistical level, and no one scenario-universal driving risk measure can correctly describe risk perception differences among drivers. We proposed a concise yet effective model, called Potential Damage Risk (PODAR) model, which provides a universal and physically meaningful structure for driving risk estimation and is suitable for general non-collision and collision scenes. In this paper, based on an open-accessed dataset collected from an obstacle avoidance experiment, four physical-interpretable parameters in PODAR, including prediction horizon, damage scale, temporal attenuation, and spatial attention, are calibrated and consequently individual risk perception models are established for each driver. The results prove the capacity and potential of PODAR to model individual differences in perceived driving risk, laying the foundation for autonomous driving to develop human-like behaviors.