Opportunities of advanced driver assistance systems
towards overtaking
Geertje Hegeman*, Karel Brookhuis** and Serge Hoogendoorn*
* Civil Engineering and Geosciences
Transport and Planning
e-mail: g.hegeman@ct.tudelft.nl
** Technology, Policy and Management
Delft University of Technology
Delft
The Netherlands
EJTIR, 5, no. 4 (2005), pp. 281-296
Received: May 2005
Accepted: December 2005
Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are available on the market whilst the
development of existing systems and new systems continues. Improving safety is one of the
key purposes of these systems. ADAS would therefore be welcome to support overtaking
manoeuvres, since these cause many fatal accidents each year. Before an ADAS could be
developed that can assist drivers with overtaking a thorough task analysis of overtaking is
necessary and presented in this paper. The overtaking manoeuvre is divided in five phases, in
which more than 20 subtasks are distinguished. Next, possibilities of ADAS towards
overtaking are verified. Almost all subtasks of an overtaking manoeuvre can be assisted with
existing ADAS functionalities, combined in a so-called active overtaking assistant.
Unfortunately, for the more complex subtasks such as ‘judging the distance with the first
opposing vehicle’ and ‘monitoring the deviations of the lead vehicle’ no ADAS functionality
is available yet.
Keywords: advanced driver assistance systems, ADAS, overtaking, task analysis,
instrumented vehicle, frequency, observations
1. Introduction
For more than a decade, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are developed.
Although not all ADAS have the aim to increase safety, it is an important effect for road
authorities, and road users in general. Indeed, ADAS is seen as one of the most promising
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Opportunities of advanced driver assistance systems towards overtaking
tools to reach the safety target to halve road fatalities between 2000 and 2010 in the
Netherlands (NVVP, 2001).
A substantial part of fatalities is caused by overtaking. Transportation experts estimate that
lane change crashes, including overtaking and merging, account for 4 to 10% of all crashes
(Barr and Najm, 2001). In the Netherlands about 26 (out of 1000) fatalities are caused by
overtaking on an annual basis (SWOV, 2003). The ADAS developments, the safety target
and overtaking as a cause of fatal accidents together were the motives to start the PhD project
ROADAS: Research on Overtaking and Advanced Driver Assistance systems.
Developments towards an overtaking assistant have already started elsewhere as well. At the
moment, a kind of overtaking assistant for motorways is available in Japan (STARDUST,
2003). However, in the Netherlands, most overtaking accidents happen on rural roads. BMW
is working on a kind of passive overtaking assistant, the so called ‘Überholassistent’,
especially meant for use on rural roads. It will warn the driver when it is not safe to overtake
due to the infrastructure, for example a hill, a sharp curve, etc. For an active overtaking
assistant, assisting with the whole overtaking procedure, a thorough analysis of the
overtaking manoeuvre is necessary. And, if all the subtasks of an overtaking manoeuvre are
known, one should investigate which are the most crucial tasks, that is, when drivers need
assistance. In Washington D.C. over 8000 lane changes were observed and analysed,
enabling some recommendations towards the design of an overtaking assistant (Lee, Olsen
and Wierwille, 2004). They focussed on the monitoring task of a driver, trying to recognise
patterns in gazing sequences. Monitoring is not the only task of a driver during overtaking
and it is necessary to verify if and how ADAS could assist the other tasks.
The objective of the study presented in this paper to make a thorough task analysis of
overtaking on roads with opposing traffic. This analysis is the starting point of the design of
an overtaking assistant, for which a first sketch is also made and reported in this paper. The
distinguished subtasks of the overtaking task are quantified with the aid of data from two
studies on overtaking: an overtaking frequency study and an observation study. These two
studies are briefly described in the next chapter and fully reported elsewhere (Hegeman,
2004; Hegeman, Brookhuis and Hoogendoorn, 2005). Next, an attempt is made to verify the
feasibility to actively assist the driver with the overtaking task. ‘Active’ in this case does not
mean that the system performs the manoeuvre, but that it is able to indicate to the driver when
it is safe to perform it. The paper ends with a summary and discussion of possible effects of
ADAS on overtaking.
2. Quantifying the overtaking task
The first data set to quantify the overtaking subtasks includes overtaking frequency data,
collected on two roads in the Netherlands (Hegeman, 2004). Three observation sessions were
carried out on the N305 Almere-Zeewolde, a two lane rural road with a speed limit of 100
km/h (for trucks and cars with trailers 80 km/h). This road was selected because of its
relatively long road sections without intersections, on which maximum overtaking frequency
is expected. The first set of observations lasted for three hours, the second and the third both
eight hours, all in both driving directions. The overtaking frequency was calculated by a
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comparison of the order of vehicles at the beginning and at the end of a road section. The
overtakings were observed by cameras and observers. On the last observation day, a second
road section with an overtaking prohibition was observed simultaneously. Table 1 shows
some results of the observations. Important features of the observed road are the unequal split
of the traffic in the two directions, for example for some hours the flow in one directions was
twice as large as the opposing flow. The trip purpose of drivers on this road was mainly work
related. On the other observed road, the N255 in Zeeland, most trip purposes were
recreational. This road also has a speed limit of 100 km/h and was observed for six hours on a
workday and a holiday. The split of the traffic here was more equal. The busiest direction was
observed, while in the other direction the flow was counted. Table 1 shows results of the
observations on this road as well.
Another data set used to quantify the tasks of an overtaking manoeuvre came from
overtaking behaviour video observations (Hegeman et al., 2005). An instrumented vehicle
was used to observe overtaking manoeuvres performed by unaffected drivers. On the N305,
where the overtaking frequency observations were carried out as well, respectively 13, 24, 11
and 0 overtaking manoeuvres were observed while driving 70, 80, 90 and 100 km/h. With the
camera data of the instrumented vehicle, the overtaking manoeuvres were thoroughly
analysed, extracting data as indicator use, duration of the overtaking manoeuvre and time to
collisions (TTC) with the first opposing vehicle. These observations led to the classification
of four overtaking strategies, of which the first three were already described in (Wilson and
Best, 1982):
Normal
Flying
Piggy
backing
2+
The overtaker approaches the lead vehicle. The overtaker has to wait for an overtaking opportunity
and therefore adjusts its speed to the speed of the lead vehicle. After some time it is able to
overtake the lead vehicle. The overtaker will accelerate during the overtaking manoeuvre
The overtaker drives with its desired speed. It observes the lead vehicle and is directly able to
overtake the lead vehicle, without adjusting its speed
A vehicle overtakes the lead vehicle and the overtaker follows this vehicle. So the overtaker stays
behind the preceding vehicle, while they both overtake the lead vehicle
The overtaker overtakes one or more vehicles behind the lead vehicle and in the same move, it also
overtakes the lead vehicle. So the minimal number of vehicles that are overtaken is 2
An illustration of the four overtaking strategies is given in figure 1.
Accelerative
2+
Flying
Piggy backing
Figure 1. Illustration of the four overtaking strategies
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Opportunities of advanced driver assistance systems towards overtaking
These overtaking strategies affect the subtasks of an overtaking manoeuvre and are therefore
important to distinguish before the task analysis is made. For the task analysis of this paper,
the normal or accelerative overtaking strategy is taken, which is more or less the basis of the
piggy backing and 2+ strategies as well. The flying overtaking strategy is the easiest strategy
and somewhat deviating, but by far not always possible to apply on the busy roads of the
Netherlands.
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Figure 2. Task analysis of the overtaking task on roads with opposing traffic
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,
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Hegeman et al.
3. Task analysis of overtaking on rural roads
Since overtaking involves many activities, for example steering, monitoring, accelerating, at
the same time closely watching the vehicle ahead, possible opposing traffic and other traffic
all at relatively high speeds, it can be regarded as a complex driving subtask. In ‘Driver
Education Task Analysis’, ‘passing’ is included as one of many driving subtasks described
(McKnight and Adams, 1970). This description is used as a basis for the overtaking task
analysis proposed here. The overtaking task is divided in five phases, each existing of several
basic control tasks, general driving tasks and situational behaviours. An overview is given in
figure 2. In this flow diagram the overtaker ‘flows’ through the arrows. At each decision
point (yes/no) the arrow divides and, depending on the ‘right’ answer, the overtaker can
continue or has to wait. The dotted lines show some alternative paths. All elements of figure
2 are described in the next sections and, if possible, quantified by using the empirical
overtaking frequency data and the overtaking manoeuvre observations.
3.1 Phase 1: Driver decides whether to overtake or not
The first task of an overtaking manoeuvre is the decision to overtake or not. The first
question is whether the driver feels the need to overtake. The need to overtake depends on the
desired speed, the speed of the preceding vehicle etc., and behavioural factors, for instance,
whether the driver is in a hurry. The need to overtake is difficult to measure at an individual
level, but is related to the overtaking demand and overtaking frequency. The macroscopic
theoretical overtaking demand can be calculated with the so called catch-up formula
(Wardrop, 1952):
ρp =
q 2σ s (u )
k 2γ (u ) k 2σ s (u )
=
≈ 0.564
2
us2
π
(1)
where q is the intensity [PCU/h], k is the density [PCU/km], s is the standard deviation of
the average speed s [kph] and mean speed difference is (u) = 2 s -1/2 (Stuart and Ord,
1987). The overtaking demand of the observed road sections in the overtaking frequency
study are calculated and shown in table 1. This table also shows the observed overtaking
frequencies.
Table 1. Observed overtaking frequency and theoretical overtaking demand1
F0-dir1 F0-dir2F1-dir1F1-dir2F2-dir1F2-dir2F2-d1-X F2-d2-X ZW ZW-X ZF ZF-X
Flow [veh/h]
1023
Opposing flow [veh/h]
456
Average speed [km/h]
86
S.D. speed [km/h]
5.8
Theoretic overtak.demand [#/km-h] 533
Observed overtaking freq. [#/km-h 52
Frequency / Demand [%]
10
456
1023
92
7.2
111
4
3
692
429
92
7.9
297
25
9
429
692
88
7.6
124
7
5
536
334
89
6.5
154
23
15
334
536
89
7.8
75
7
9
413
291
84
9.3
148
1
1
291
413
88
8.4
65
1
2
1
258
231
89
8.0
41
7
16
271
227
86
8.8
53
1
1
438
320
87
8.5
129
16
13
F0 = 3h observation Flevoland, F1, F2 = 8h observations Flevoland, dir1 = busy direction, X = observations on
sections with overtaking prohibition, ZW = Zeeland workday, ZH = Zeeland holiday
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320
83
7.6
143
2
1
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Opportunities of advanced driver assistance systems towards overtaking
Table 1 shows that at most 16% of the overtaking demand was really performed. The
overtaking need will lie somewhere between this macroscopic overtaking demand and the
observed overtaking frequency. Indeed, the theoretical demand is clearly an overestimation of
the need: a driver with a desired speed which is 0.1 km/h higher than the lead vehicle has a
theoretical overtaking demand, but will not overtake in practice. And, behavioural factors are
not included in the theoretical demand, for example, if a driver has to turn left or right soon,
overtaking will not take place either in most cases. The overtaking need will therefore be
lower, but not as low as the observed overtaking frequency. For example the big difference
between the frequency in the busy direction (e.g. F1-dir1) and the less busy direction (e.g.
F1-dir2) shows that more drivers at the less busy direction would have felt a need to overtake,
but there were no opportunities. One could argue that there are less drivers in this direction
and therefore less drivers with an overtaking need, but the ZH flow is almost similar to the
F1-dir2 flow, but with less opposing flow, and here the observed overtaking frequency is
higher. This is also due to the lower average speed and the higher standard deviation of
speed. More insight in the need to overtake can be derived by further analysis of the video
data of the overtaking behaviour observations. For example, by counting the vehicles closing
in at the instrumented vehicle, without being able to perform an overtaking manoeuvre, or
measuring the following duration of drivers who did perform an overtaking manoeuvre.
These analyses are beyond the scope of this paper.
A driver with an overtaking need will watch the roadside for overtaking regulation signs. In
the Netherlands, an overtaking prohibition for special vehicle types, for example trucks or
vehicles with trailers, is indicated with road signs, at the beginning of each road section. ‘No
overtaking zones’ for all traffic are always indicated with at least one continuous line
between two driving directions. Some years ago these were only positioned in curves or on
hills, where it is difficult to see possible opposing traffic. The “Sustainable safety program”,
launched in 1992, however, includes an overtaking prohibition on all rural roads with a speed
limit of 80 km/h (distributor road) and 100 km/h (flow road). This program is supposed to be
a strong advice for road authorities, but they are not obliged to apply the sustainable safety
design to their roads. If they do, there should be at least two continuous lines between the two
driving directions to indicate the overtaking prohibition and preferably a physical barrier. For
a prohibition without physical barrier, some drivers might decide to overtake anyway. As
Table 1 shows, overtaking manoeuvres were observed on sections with an overtaking
prohibition. On the road with equal flows in both directions, respectively 11% (busy day) and
13% of the overtakers ignored the overtaking prohibition. On the N305, in the direction with
much opposing traffic, over 15% of the overtakers ignored the overtaking prohibition, while
in the busy direction this is ‘only’ 5%. This implies that drivers, who get less opportunity to
overtake, are more inclined to ignore an overtaking prohibition. Or, on a less busy direction,
it makes more sense to overtake, since you will not immediately end up behind another
‘slow’ vehicle. The non-compliance to overtaking prohibition is indicated in figure 2 with a
dotted line.
When it is desired and allowed to overtake, the third subtask is to look for an opportunity,
which is dependent on possible infrastructural limitations such as hills, curves, intersections,
railroad crossings, bridges or tunnels. There should be no overtaking limitations for the whole
overtaking distance. McKnight et al. (1970) assumed that this overtaking distance is judged
by the driver on the basis of the lead vehicle’s speed. However, analysis of the observed
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overtakings showed that the duration of an overtaking manoeuvre is independent of the lead
vehicle’s speed. The overtaking distance depends on the duration of the manoeuvre which is
dependent on the acceleration capability of the car, which in turn is dependent on load of the
car (passengers, cargo, trailer). Additionally relevant are familiarity with the car and proper
operation of the car. Besides the required overtaking distance, the driver also has to allow
adequate safety margins for the return to the right lane. And the gap in front of the lead
vehicle should be verified as being large enough. At this stage, only more or less static factors
influencing the overtaking opportunity are verified. Dynamic opportunity factors, such as
potential opposing traffic, are judged in the next phase. The opportunity judgements of this
phase lead to a determination whether the overtake manoeuvre can be safely completed
within the available overtaking distance. During the reported observations of overtaking
manoeuvres, one of the overtakers clearly waited to perform its manoeuvre till after a smooth
curve. There were no other infrastructural limitations on the road section used for the
observations.
Note that most of the described tasks of the first phase are checked continuously. Indeed, if
an overtaking opportunity is present, the driver should use the time optimally. When all the
tasks of the decision whether to overtake (Phase 1) are performed and all are positive, that is,
there is a need, it is allowed and there is an opportunity to overtake, the driver will start the
preparation to overtake. The dotted lines in figure 2 indicate that some drivers will perform a
manoeuvre even if it is not allowed or if there is no (safe) opportunity.
3.2 Phase 2: Prepares for overtaking
On a bi-directional road, the opportunity to overtake is highly dependent on oncoming traffic.
The distance to the first oncoming vehicle has to be judged. This is a difficult subtask, firstly
because it is not included in other tasks of driving (McKnight et al., 1970), implying that
drivers will not have the kind of routine in the performance of this task such as with for
example steering. Furthermore, human beings are poor judges of distance and speed, let alone
the speed of oncoming vehicles. Estimates are influenced by their own car speed and the
speed limit (McKnight et al., 1970). For most of the reported observed overtaking
manoeuvres there was no opposing vehicle visible at the moment the overtaking manoeuvre
started. When the gap with opposing traffic is sufficient, all surrounding traffic will be
observed, starting with the deviations of the lead vehicle. If it is signalling to indicate a left
turn, changing lanes preparing to overtake, decelerating suddenly or weaving or wandering,
the overtaking manoeuvre will not start. Changes in speed of the lead vehicle are hard to
detect by the driver. If a driver is following a car ahead at a distance of 30 m, a minimum
change of 3.7 m is needed before the driver will become aware that the distance is increasing
or decreasing, that is, a change in relative velocity (Mortimer, 1988). Since the instrumented
vehicle was the lead vehicle during the reported observations, no activities of the lead vehicle
were observed. However, not only the lead vehicle and opposing vehicles are of importance,
the driver should also take notice of traffic from behind, possibly also performing an
overtaking manoeuvre. Also important during this second phase of the overtaking
manoeuvre, is to maintain a proper following distance prior to the lane change. During
normal driving, a time headway of two seconds is recommended. Using the speed of the
instrumented vehicle, only one driver kept more than two seconds headway (flying overtake).
29 drivers kept a headway shorter than one second. The final task of Phase 2 is the use of the
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Opportunities of advanced driver assistance systems towards overtaking
indicator. In the reported observations 32 drivers used their indicator, eight did not and for
eight drivers it was not visible on the video.
The time frame in which Phase 2 is performed is measured for the reported observed
overtaking manoeuvres, being the time between the last opposing vehicle has passed the
vehicle while preparing the overtaking manoeuvre and the moment this vehicle’s front left
wheel touches the centre line. This time frame is called the perception reaction time,
measured for 26 drivers whereas 21 of these had a perception reaction time shorter than one
second (see Hegeman et al., 2005).
3.3 Phase 3: Changes lane
Phase 3 starts with steering, accelerating and monitoring to let the vehicle enter the centre of
the new lane. In case of a flying overtake, acceleration is not necessary. For six observed
overtaking manoeuvres the flying overtake strategy was applied. At the end of the lane
change, the indicator should be switched off again. Some drivers leave the indicator also
switched on during Phase 4 of the overtaking task. The average duration of the third phase of
the overtaking manoeuvre, that is, the time between the left front wheel touching the centre
line and the right back crossing the centre line, was 1.5 s ± 0.5 s for all reported observed
overtaking manoeuvres (Hegeman et al., 2005).
3.4 Phase 4: Pass
In the fourth phase, the overtaking vehicle is at the left lane and will pass the lead vehicle.
During an accelerative overtaking manoeuvre, the pass of the lead vehicle is a continuation of
acceleration, and if necessary to change gear. According to McKnight et al. (1970), two extra
tasks during the pass of the lead vehicle are to signal the lead vehicle when necessary and
flick headlights at night. Both are not commonly used in the Netherlands and are therefore
not included in figure 2. Also not very commonly done, but perhaps useful is to sound a horn
when the lead vehicle is about to pull out and overtake another vehicle or the lead vehicle is
moving laterally towards the car. The overtaking driver will pass the lead vehicle while
monitoring the gap with possible opposing vehicles. In theory, acceleration till the desired
speed is enough. But most drivers will continue accelerating as long as they are on the
overtaking lane and adjust the speed to the desired speed when back on their own lane. If
sudden acceleration is needed, the driver should press the accelerator to the floor to finish the
manoeuvre quickly. But, if the opportunity to complete the pass is uncertain, the pass will be
aborted and the driver will return to the right lane, behind the lead vehicle and the overtaking
manoeuvre should start again at Phase 1. This did not happen during the overtaking
observations. When the sight distance permits, several vehicles can be passed in one
overtaking manoeuvre. This is defined as the 2+ strategy, which was five times applied during
the reported overtaking observations. The average time spent on the left lane, that is, the
duration of the fourth phase of the overtaking manoeuvre was reported to be 4.2 s ± 2.3 s
(Hegeman et al., 2005).
3.5 Phase 5: Returns to right lane
The fifth and final phase of the overtaking manoeuvre is to return to the right lane. Similar as
at the start of the manoeuvre, the indicator should be used to indicate a lane change. During
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the reported observations, 25 drivers used their indicator in this phase, 17 did not and for 6 it
was invisible. The steering action to position the vehicle in the centre of the own driving lane
can start if both headlights of the lead vehicle (not leading anymore) are observed in the
rearview mirror. But if the gap with the opposing vehicle becomes critical, that is, smaller
than 4 seconds (Van der Horst and Hogema, 1993) the driver can decide to move back to the
right lane sooner, for example, when both headlights are observed in the right sight mirror.
Since the speed of the overtaking vehicle and the lead vehicle is in the same direction and the
overtaking vehicle is likely to drive faster, the danger of a collision between these two vehicle
is smaller than between the overtaker and the opposing vehicle. In 39 of the 48 observed
headways after the overtaking manoeuvre headways were smaller than two seconds, of which
seven were even smaller than one second. Back in the right lane, the driver can control the
speed again. If the overtaking vehicle enters the right lane behind a new lead vehicle with a
lower than desired speed, the speed has to be adjusted to this speed. The average duration of
the fifth phase of the observed overtaking manoeuvres, that is, the time between the right
front wheel touches the centre line and the left back wheel has crossed the centre line, was
found to be 2.7 s ± 0.7 s (Hegeman et al., 2005).
3.6 Summary
The presented task analysis divided the overtaking manoeuvre into five phases, in total
existing of more than 20 subtasks. The performance of all these subtasks takes on average 7.8
s ± 2.5s. In the next section, a first sketch of an overtaking assistant on rural roads is given.
4. A first sketch of an overtaking assistant on rural roads
The task analysis of overtaking presented in the previous chapter describes the overtaking
manoeuvre in great detail. We argue that such an analysis is a good starting point for the
design of an advanced driver assistant system (ADAS) that aims to assist the overtaking task.
This chapter will provide a first sketch of an overtaking assistant on rural roads. The system
in mind should warn the driver when it is not safe to overtake and will inform the driver when
it is safe to overtake, taking into account all aspects affecting overtaking feasibility. At this
stage, it remains only an advisory system that gives advice, visual or auditory, similar to, for
example, a navigation system. It will not actively support any of the vehicle control tasks, as,
for example, a cruise control does. Thus, it will not affect steering, braking, accelerating, etc.
For all features necessary for an overtaking assistant, possible technologies to realise them
are discussed. For each of the technologies it is verified whether they are already available in
existing ADAS or could easily be added to existing systems.
4.1 Functionalities for an overtaking assistant
Since not all drivers will (always) feel the need to be assisted at overtaking, the system
should have an ON/OFF switch. Drivers can then choose to have assistance whenever they
need it. The ON/OFF switch will be part of the overtaking assistant and will not be integrated
with other systems, that is, if a driver switches ON the cruise control, the overtaking assistant
is not automatically switched ON as well.
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Opportunities of advanced driver assistance systems towards overtaking
The decision whether to overtake or not is instigated by the felt need to overtake. The
presence of other systems might influence the need to overtake. In the case of the cruise
control example: if drivers drive with adaptive cruise control and are able to follow a lead
vehicle with a slightly lower speed than their desired speed without having to control the
speed themselves, the need to overtake might decrease. Contrarily, some drivers may see it as
a challenge to keep the cruise control ON as long as possible, which, in turn, increases the
overtaking need.
Next, an overtaking assistant should include information about overtaking prohibitions. Both
signs and continuous lines should be included to avoid conflicts between positive advice (‘it
is safe to overtake’) and overtaking permission. For the realisations of this overtaking
opportunity functionality, existing advanced navigations systems, based on Global Position
Systems (GPS) can be used. These systems then have to be provided with prohibition
information. This is feasible for the signs, but detecting prohibitions that are indicated with
continuous road markings will be more difficult. Perhaps functionalities of a lane departure
warning system (LDWA) could help here.
A support function for the last task of the first phase of the overtaking task, verification of the
opportunity for an overtaking manoeuvre, should include features for both recognition of
environmental limitations as well as infrastructural limitations. Static environmental
limitations such as hills and curves could be included in advanced navigation systems, which
is being developed by BMW. Ideally, the system should also be able to deal with dynamic
environmental limitations such as fog or heavy rain. Possibly sensors could help here
(Nishikawa, Imachou and Kamata, 2005). Infrastructural overtaking possibility limitations
include the existence of junctions or roundabouts, within the distance required to perform the
overtaking manoeuvre. Current navigation systems have information about distance to
junctions or roundabouts and this information could therefore be used to avoid a positive
overtaking advice while the driver is close to a junction.
The assistance with judgement of the gap with the first opposing vehicle will be an important
feature of the overtaking assistant, because this is assumed to be the most difficult part of the
overtaking manoeuvre for a human being. For this judgement, the system has to know the
speed of the overtaking vehicle, the speed of the first opposing vehicle and the remaining
distance between the two. It will then be able to calculate the remaining time to perform the
manoeuvre. The observed overtaking durations, with an average of 7.8 seconds, give some
information for what a safe time gap will be. To this duration, a safety margin of some four
seconds should be added (Van der Horst et al., 1993). Preferably, the threshold setting for
positive advice (‘it is safe to overtake’) will be adjustable by the driver, within some
(absolute) safety margins. Such a feature is comparable with current adaptive cruise controls
enabling drivers to choose their own following-distance settings. The minimal possible (time)
distance setting required for an overtaking manoeuvre can be based on the observed durations
of overtaking manoeuvres (Hegeman et al., 2005). Mind that the overtaking assistant should
continue the judgement of the distance with the first opposing vehicle during the whole
overtaking manoeuvre. It should warn for possible other vehicles approaching the overtaker
with a TTC smaller than for example three seconds (Lee et al., 2004). The realisation of a
functionality that is able to assist the driver with the judgment of the (time) distance with the
first opposing vehicle is very difficult. As yet, no radar, laser, camera or sensor is able to
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‘look’ far enough ahead. The European project PReVENT aims to warn drivers for
approaching vehicles with a relative velocity of 120 km/h by using sensors (PReVENT,
2005). Perhaps it is possible in the near future to recognize other vehicle by means of
navigations systems. Otherwise, for this functionality, we have to wait until vehicle to vehicle
communication is available, which is on its way (Misener, Sengupta and Krishnan, 2005).
The feasibility of these systems is demonstrated, but it will take some time before vehicle to
vehicle communication is available on the market. Moreover, for overtaking assistance, all
vehicles need to be equipped, to be sure that no opposing vehicle is missed.
The task to monitor deviations of the lead vehicle will remain mainly a task of drivers
themselves. The eyes of the driver are adequate ‘tools’ to recognise indicators or brake lights.
This also holds for activity of other obstructing traffic, since the driver is the supervisor of the
system. But, an overtaking assistant should include a collision warning system (CAS) if other
vehicles approach too close (Lee et al., 2004). Developments towards recognition of vehicles
in the blind spot are on their way as well. Drivers indeed indicate a need for ‘blind spot
warning’, mostly on motorways, but also on rural roads (Van Driel, 2005). The rear view
camera of a Japanese lane change assistant, to monitor possible vehicles approaching from
behind, is an example of a development towards blind spot assistance. This system requires
the use of the indicator, a task for which no assistance system is available yet, while far from
all use their indicator (Lee et al., 2004; Hegeman et al., 2005)
The task to keep a safe distance with the lead vehicle yields some contradictions. On the one
hand, drivers should keep the recommended safe following time of two seconds. On the other
hand, the longer the distance between the lead vehicle and the overtaker, the more time it will
take to perform the overtaking manoeuvre. Some simple calculations show that this
additional time is on the order of seconds (depending on the relative speed during the
overtaking), and is hence non-negligible. Conflicts with distance keeping assistances systems,
for example adaptive cruise control will occur during overtaking manoeuvres. The question is
whether these systems should temporarily allow a shorter headway, for example, at those
moments the overtaking assistant gives a positive overtaking advice. This will help avoid
conflicts between different assistance systems and will not increase the necessary overtaking
time.
The use of the indicator remains to be a task of the drivers themselves, since the overtaking
assistant discussed here is an advisory system and will not interfere with control tasks.
Advice to use the indicator when changing lane could be added to the overtaking assistant,
either informative or even automatically switched ON if the driver feels an overtaking need
and there is an overtaking opportunity. This will also be useful for blind spot warning
systems that only work if the indicator is used.
The subtasks steering and accelerating, which are part of most phases of the overtaking
manoeuvre, will remain tasks for drivers. The overtaking assistant will not interfere with
these control tasks. The actual pass of the lead vehicle and possibly other vehicles prior to the
lead vehicle will also be performed by drivers; no assistance is required to do this. Finally,
the subtasks to control the desired speed and to maintain this does not have to be assisted by
the overtaking assistant. Of course, existing systems such as cruise control could help drivers
with these tasks.
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Table 2 shows an overview of what subtasks (as distinguished in figure 2) should be assisted
by the overtaking assistant and what is already available with respect to existing ADAS or
could be added to existing ADAS. The ADAS in mind are shown between brackets.
Table 2. Which tasks of the overtaking manoeuvre will be assisted and which could be
integrated in existing adas? The tasks correspond with the identified tasks in figure 2.
Overtaking subtasks
Need? 1
Assisted
Integrated with other systems
Allowed (GPS)
Special for overtaking assistant
Need?
Steering, accelerating
Opportunity (GPS, LDWA)
Opportunity
Other obstructing traffic
Other obstructing traffic
(blind spot warning, CAS)
Other obstructing traffic?
Deviations lead vehicle
Deviations lead vehicle?
(side warning)
Gap with first opposing vehicle
Safe distance with lead vehicle
(CAS, ACC)
Safe distance with lead vehicle
Monitoring (CAS)
Monitoring
Do it yourself
Indicator on (2x)
Indicator off (2x)
Change gear
Monitoring
Pass lead vehicle
Pass other vehicles
Desired speed?
Desired speed? (ACC)
1
Italic means that the subtask is partly in one column and partly in another, for example could be integrated
with another system or will be specially developed for the overtaking assistant
5. Summary and discussion
5.1 Summary
To improve traffic safety, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are considered
promising tools (Brookhuis, 2005). Overtaking causes too many fatal accidents each year. To
study the opportunities of ADAS towards overtaking, a thorough task analysis of the
overtaking manoeuvre has been carried out. In this task analysis the overtaking manoeuvre is
divided in five phases, each including several subtasks of the overtaking manoeuvre. Some of
these subtasks, for example steering, accelerating, monitoring, keeping proper distance, are
also performed during normal driving, but are especially demanding during an overtaking
manoeuvre. In the meantime, extra subtasks such as judging speed and distance to opposing
vehicles, judging the space in front of the lead vehicle, judging the overtaking distance and
overtaking time are performed too. Observed overtakers were able to perform overtaking
manoeuvres in an average period of 7.8 seconds, with a standard deviation of 1.9 seconds.
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The paper presents a description of an overtaking assistant for rural roads based on the task
analysis, that is, it describes how the system could assist the driving when deciding to
overtake, during preparation for overtaking, lane changing, passing, and returning to its lane.
Contributing elements of existing ADAS should be integrated in an active informative
overtaking assistant. On a technical level, this overtaking assistant should include GPS
functionality, with maps including overtaking prohibitions and infrastructural overtaking
restrictions ahead. Prohibitions indicated with a continuous line between the driving
directions, can only be assisted by lane departure warning assistance (LDWA) which should
therefore also be integrated in the overtaking assistant. For this, it is necessary that the
LDWA looks (far) ahead of the vehicle (on the digital map), which is not possible yet.
Additional ACC features help with headway keeping prior to the overtaking manoeuvre,
under the conditions that it still functions if the driver accelerates. Perhaps temporarily
allowance of headways shorter than two seconds will avoid an increase of current overtake
time. ACC will also assist with the speed regulation after the manoeuvre is completed.
Finally, collision avoidance systems will assist the overtaker with the task to monitor
activities of the lead vehicle and possible other surrounding traffic. A CAS will warn if the
distance with any vehicle becomes smaller than three seconds (Lee et al., 2004).
Although most tasks of an overtaking manoeuvre will be supported by the proposed
overtaking assistant existing of features of many ADAS, not all subtasks can be supported
yet. Judging the distance with the first opposing vehicle, monitoring the deviations of the lead
vehicle and other surrounding traffic and judging the gap in front of the lead vehicle will
remain unsupported for the time being.
5.2 Discussion
The task analysis of the overtaking manoeuvre shows that there are many subtasks, but does
not show which the most difficult ones are. In other words, failure of which subtask causes
accidents? In theory, this could be determined from accident reports, but in practice this turns
out to be very difficult. In most accident reports, only one cause of the accident is given.
‘Overtaking’ is most likely to be given as accident causation in case of a frontal collision of
two opposing vehicles. The overtaking driver highly likely failed to judge the gap with the
opposing vehicle correctly. For other subtasks, for example ‘keep proper headway with lead
vehicle’ an other accident cause than overtaking might be reported by the police, for example,
inattention. This not only leads to an overestimation of gap judgment with opposing vehicle
as overtaking accident causation, but also to an underestimation of overtaking as accident
cause. Another question is, if drivers get assistance with the subtask that they failed to
perform correctly, will they not fail to perform another subtask correctly? In other words, will
it help to assistant one task out of a chain of many tasks? Perhaps only an overtaking assistant
being able to assist all subtasks of an overtaking manoeuvre will be able to eliminate
overtaking as an accident causation.
A second point of discussion is the size of a safe headway prior to and after the overtaking
manoeuvre. In the Netherlands two seconds headway is recommended as a minimal safe
headway. Since perception reaction time is at least one second (Van der Horst et al., 1993),
this seems reasonable. But during overtaking, the driver is alert and expects something to
happen. For expected happenings, perception reaction times of around half a second are
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observed (Koppa, 1995) and thus a shorter headway could be safe enough. Moreover, in case
of an overtaking manoeuvre, longer headways result in a longer distance to travel on the left
lane and therefore a longer duration of the overtaking manoeuvre. The headway keeping
functionality of an ACC was suggested to be integrated in an overtaking assistant, under the
condition that it also functions during acceleration. Some currently available ACC’s give the
driver the opportunity to manually choose the minimal headway. For a BMW, the absolute
minimum is 0.9 s. (www.bmw.com). This seems to be a safe minimum headway for a driver
who wants to overtake and secure extra overtaking time. The question what is a safe headway
also accounts for the headway after the manoeuvre. In this case, the shorter overtaking
distance is not an argument for a shorter headway, but, since the speed of the overtaker is
higher than the lead vehicle’s speed, the danger of a collision is smaller and the headway is
likely to increase after the manoeuvre is completed. Therefore, a shorter headway, for
example one second, should be allowed, especially when the distance with an opposing
vehicle is small. Already in 1963, it was recommended to ‘cut in’ in front of the lead vehicle,
if the distance with an opposing vehicle becomes critical (Crawford, 1963).
Finally, we would like to discuss the observed short time between the pass of the last
opposing vehicle after which the overtaking manoeuvre will be performed and the start of the
overtaking manoeuvre. For 21 of the observed 26 drivers, this time was found to be shorter
than one second (Hegeman et al., 2005). It seems that the ‘prepare to overtake’ phase is
performed before the overtaking gap is available. A driver with a need to overtake,
continuously performs all the subtasks of Phase 1 and Phase 2 in order to optimally use a
possible overtaking opportunity. A consequence for the overtaking assistant is that it should
inform the driver of an oncoming overtaking gap before it is present. The realisations of this
feature depends on the design of the human machine interface (HMI) which is outside the
scope of this paper.
The next step for the development of an overtaking assistant, is a driving simulator
experiment in which the effects of the suggested overtaking assistant in this paper will be
tested to functionality, usefulness and acceptance by the driver. Participants will drive with
an overtaking assistant, assisting with finding an overtaking gap, indicator use, and headway
keeping. Objectives of the study will be the functional design of an acceptable and useful
system.
Acknowledgements
This study is part of the ROADAS (Research on Overtaking and Advanced driver Assistance
Systems) project which is one of the six subprojects of the Dutch research program
BAMADAS (Behavioural Analysis and Modelling for the Design and Implementation of
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems). BAMADAS intends to improve the knowledge
regarding road vehicle driver behaviour in interaction with ADAS. This four-year program
started in 2002 and is sponsored by NWO-Connekt.
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