Influence of Cut-In Maneuvers for an Autonomous Car on Surrounding Drivers: Experiment and Analysis

To safely and efficiently change lanes among human drivers, autonomous vehicles (AVs) should make human-like decisions and seamlessly cooperate with surrounding vehicles. Both overaggressive and over-conservative cut-in maneuvers will have adverse effects on traffic efficiency and safety. However, it is still not entirely clear how much influence of the AV's cut-in behavior would lay on the surrounding drivers in urban traffic. To investigate this question, we design a series of driving scenarios and analyze the impact of different cut-in maneuvers performed by the human-like AV on the surrounding drivers' comfort. Ten volunteer drivers participate in our experiment and take a series of trials in a driving simulator. The experimental results demonstrate that the relative distance between the AV and the target car on the adjacent lane has a more significant effect on the surrounding drivers' comfort than the relative speed does. In addition, different parameters should be considered with different cut-in scenarios. This conclusion could provide practical support to make a friendly cut-in decision for the AVs.