Proving ground evaluation of enhanced ADAS: context understanding ADAS

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are developed to increase safety and provide a more efficient and comfortable experience when traveling by car. ADAS are reliant upon sensors to provide the intended assistance for the driver, and the driver is reliant upon an HMI interface to interact with the feature at hand. A prototype ADAS, including a human machine interface (HMI) and enhanced ADAS functionality, was developed and then evaluated on proving ground. The purpose of the study was to evaluate how the enhanced ADAS performed as compared to baseline in terms of trust, acceptance, efficiency, and perceived situation awareness. The evaluation of the full prototype was conducted with 24 participants (13 men and 11 women) who drove a Lincoln MKZ equipped with longitudinal and lateral ADAS support (SAE Level 2) at the AstaZero proving ground facilities in Sweden. In total the participants drove four laps (familiarization lap, baseline lap, gaze-related functionality lap, active ADAS functionality lap) on the proving ground. The gaze-related functionalities tracked the gaze to assure blind spot gaze and correct turning gaze behavior and provided support for this. The active ADAS functionalities included that the system was able to override the time gap setting of the longitudinal control system to provide the driver with more time to react as the feature was triggered in the presence of driver distraction, as well as a system that alerted the driver about upcoming situations in which the longitudinal and lateral assist systems were unable to support the driver due to exceeding of the operational design domain (ODD). Gaze-related functionalities were associated with a significant increase in usefulness and satisfaction compared to baseline, and active ADAS functionalities were associated with a significant increase in satisfaction compared to baseline.