An adaptive and rule based driving system for energy-e cient and safe driving behaviour

Abstract

Saving energy and protecting the environment became fundamental for society and politics, why several laws were enacted to increase the energye ciency. Furthermore, the growing number of vehicles and drivers leaded to more accidents and fatalities on the roads, why road safety became an important factor as well. Due to the increasing importance of energye ciency and safety, car manufacturers started to optimise the vehicle in terms of energy-e ciency and safety. However, energy-e ciency and road safety can be also increased by adapting the driving behaviour to the given driving situation. This thesis presents a concept of an adaptive and rule based driving system that tries to educate the driver in energy-e cient and safe driving by showing recommendations on time. Unlike existing driving systems, the presented driving system considers energy-e ciency and safety relevant driving rules, the individual driving behaviour and the driver condition. This allows to avoid the distraction of the driver and to increase the acceptance of the driving system, while improving the driving behaviour in terms of energy-e ciency and safety. A prototype of the driving system was developed and evaluated. The evaluation was done on a driving simulator using 42 test drivers, who tested the e_ect of the driving system on the driving behaviour and the e_ect of the adaptiveness of the driving system on the user acceptance. It has been proven during the evaluation that the energy-e ciency and safety can be increased, when the driving system was used. Furthermore, it has been proven that the user acceptance of the driving system increases when the adaptive feature was turned on. A high user acceptance of the driving system allows a steady usage of the driving system and, thus, a steady improvement of the driving behaviour in terms of energy-e ciency and safety.