Effects of Cognitive Distraction and Driving Environment Complexity on Adaptive Cruise Control Use and Its Impact on Driving Performance: A Simulator Study

TL;DR

This simulator study investigates how cognitive distraction and environment complexity influence adaptive cruise control use and driving performance, revealing environment effects on ACC engagement and benefits for lateral control.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how driving environment complexity affects ACC reliance and demonstrates ACC's impact on driving performance under different conditions.

Findings

ACC engagement decreases in complex environments

Cognitive load does not significantly affect ACC use

ACC improves lateral control and speed compliance

Abstract

In this simulator study, we adopt a human-centered approach to explore whether and how drivers' cognitive state and driving environment complexity influence reliance on driving automation features. Besides, we examine whether such reliance affects driving performance. Participants operated a vehicle equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) in a simulator across six predefined driving scenarios varying in traffic conditions while either performing a cognitively demanding task (i.e., responding to mental calculations) or not. Throughout the experiment, participants had to respect speed limits and were free to activate or deactivate ACC. In complex driving environments, we found that the overall ACC engagement time was lower compared to less complex driving environments. We observed no significant effect of cognitive load on ACC use. Furthermore, while ACC use had no effect on the number of lane changes, it impacted the speed limits compliance and improved lateral control.