Emergency manuever experimentation using a driving simulator

This research was carried out by INRETS {France) using the Daimler-Benz driving simulator, in order to analyse the behaviour of 49 drivers, when faced with an unexpected emergency situation at a junction. This experiment enables us to collect driver reaction times, and to validate our previous work dealing with the choice of an emergency manoeuvre. Most driver s resorted to braking. Only 1 out of 5 drivers succeeded in avoiding the collision, whereas an appropriate and correctly performed manoeuvre, in particular a wider use of lateral swerving, would have allowed a higher success rate. The advantage of ABS, the influence of the obstacle movement with regard to the outcome of the emergency situation, and the poor benefit obtained by reducing reaction times are also discussed. Therefrom the main objective of driving aid devices should be to prevent the driver from being faced with such a situation