In the Netherlands, a five month field operational test (FOT) of 20 cars equipped with lane departure warning (LDW) systems found that the number of unintentional lane crossings decreased by 35 percent on secondary roads and 30 percent on highways due to the use of LDW.
Date Posted
05/29/2008
Identifier
2008-B00574
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Dutch Field Operational Test experience with ""The Assisted Driver""

Summary Information

In order to get a better understanding of how driving with Advanced Driver Assistance (ADA) systems affects traffic flow in terms of safety, throughput, and environment in practice, a Field Operational Test (FOT), called “The Assisted Driver” was conducted by the Dutch Road Authority Rijkswaterstaat in The Netherlands. The main component of this project was the so-called Full Traffic FOT in which 20 cars, equipped with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Departure Warning, were driven in mixed traffic for five months. During this period, a vast amount of data was collected by installed data-loggers in order to perform an objective impact assessment.

The Lane Departure Warning (LDW) system tested had three components: a camera with a processing unit, a display mounted on the dashboard, and two speakers. The camera detected the lane markings and the processing unit calculated whether the car is about to leave the lane or not. Only when a driver was about to leave the lane unintentionally was a warning given, based on whether or not the driver used the directional indicators. The warning was given by a sound (which resembles a car driving over a rumble strip) on the side of the car that was approaching the lane marking, and was accompanied by a flashing display. A five month field operational test of 20 cars equipped with this type of lane departure warning (LDW) system found that the number of unintentional lane crossings decreased by 35 percent on secondary roads and 30 percent on highways due to the use of LDW. These benefits were calculated based on comparing performance of the drivers when the LDW was active versus not active in the cars. Drivers also kept better course to prevent warnings.

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