Safety Benefits Estimation of an Intelligent Cruise Control System Using Field Operational Test Data

The potential safety benefits of an Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) system are assessed in terms of the number of rear-end crashes that might be avoided on U.S. freeways if all vehicles were equipped with such a system. This analysis utilizes naturalistic driving data collected from a field operational test that involved 108 volunteers who drove ten passenger cars for about 68 and 35 thousand miles in manual and ICC control modes, respectively. The effectiveness of the ICC system is estimated at about 17 percent based on computer simulations of two rear-end precrash scenarios that are distinguished by whether the following vehicle encounters a suddenly-decelerating or slow-moving lead vehicle. The ICC system has the potential to eliminate approximately 13 thousand policereported rear-end crashes on U.S. freeways, using 1996 national crash statistics.