Assessing driver's ability to estimate compliance rates to in-car, advisory driver support

Purpose: In-car support systems focus increasingly on improving traffic flow and throughput. Advisory systems allow for fast market penetration, advising drivers how to drive in order to improve general flow. By following the advice, drivers cannot create a beneficial effect by themselves but rely on other road users to comply as well. Drivers who sense a low compliance among other road users may be discouraged to use the system themselves. The present experiment investigated whether drivers are able to distinguish between various compliance rates to Connected Cruise Control (CCC), an advisory driver support system that gives headway, speed and lane advice to improve throughput on motorways. Method: Forty-two participants estimated the compliance of other road users to CCC in a driving simulator. Actual system compliance was varied between 10, 50 and 90 %. Half of the participants received detailed information about the advice and the manifestation of compliant behaviour in traffic. Results: Compliance estimates showed no effect of actual compliance rates. Overall compliance ratings were higher for participants who had not received additional information about the system. Difference scores between compliance estimate and actual compliance indicate that additional information did not improve estimation accuracy, neither did it increase participants' confidence with their estimate. Conclusions: When actual compliance is low, drivers still show high compliance estimates which can have beneficial effect on system acceptance. Additional information does not improve compliance estimates. © 2013 The Author(s)