Design and verification of driver interfaces for adaptive cruise control systems

In a highly automated system, mode confusion is a significant human error factor that contributes to accidents. To suppress mode confusion in adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems of vehicles, we developed a new driver interface based on a formal approach to analyze and verify human-automation interaction. To enhance the driver’s mode awareness, we developed a new ACC interface that eliminates inconsistent mode transitions by reconfiguring the modes. Then, a human-in-loop experiment was conducted in a simulated environment where a driving simulator was used to evaluate the state and mode awareness of drivers with the old and new interfaces. The experimental results showed that the proposed interface model, which was verified a formal method, was very effective in reducing mode confusion compared with the traditional interface model.