Capacity implications of personalized adaptive cruise control

With the emergence, advancement, and development of automated vehicle (AV) technologies, adaptive cruise control (ACC) is becoming increasingly relevant in commercially available vehicles. While fully automated vehicles promise numerous benefits, recent studies suggest that ACC vehicles may have adverse effects on traffic flow. Although considerable research has been devoted to investigating the effects of ACC vehicles, little is known about the impact of switching between ACC mode and cruise control (CC) mode, which forms the basis of personalized ACC. This study aims to examine the influence of two crucial switching factors, namely switching gap and desired speed, on traffic flow using numerical simulations. The findings reveal that an increase in desired speed has the potential to enhance highway capacity, while an increase in the switching gap is likely to decrease traffic capacity. Notably, the simulations demonstrate the capacity drop with the mode-switching simulation. These results offer valuable insights into the development of personalized ACC vehicles that can leverage various user inputs in the design process.