Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems field operational test plan

Abstract

This document presents the plan for conducting a field operational test (FOT) of the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems (IVBSS) program. The plan describes the work that will be performed by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute using 16 passenger cars and 10 commercial trucks equipped with an integrated crash avoidance system. The goal of the IVBSS program is to conduct a field test to collect data to objectively assess the potential safety benefits and driver acceptance associated with prototype integrated crash warning systems. Both platforms have three integrated crash-warning subsystem systems (forward crash, lateral drift, and lanechange/ merge warnings); the light-vehicle platform also has a fourth subsystem, curve-speed warning. For the light-vehicle portion of the FOT, 108 lay drivers will operate test vehicles in place of their own personal cars for a period of six weeks. Forty commercial-truck drivers from a commercial fleet will operate heavy trucks in place of the Class 8 tractors they normally use as their work vehicles for a period of five months. All vehicles will be instrumented to capture information regarding the driving environment, driver activity, system behavior, and vehicle kinematics. Driver information will be captured through a series of subjective questionnaires, focus groups, and debriefing sessions to determine driver acceptance and to gain insight for improving future versions of integrated crash warning systems.