Simulation-based traffic assessment of a connected automated driving function

We assess the effects of a cooperative connected driving assistant that resolves the right of way at an inner-city bottleneck using microscopic traffic simulation. To get information about the time gap acceptance of human drivers in such a situation, we have conducted an online study and calibrated the simulation parameters based on these findings. Additional assumptions had to be made about the cooperation of human drivers and how they would deal with this bottleneck assistant, as the online study could not provide conclusive results on this. A simulation study focusing on the penetration rate was carried out based on these assumptions. The simulation showed that a penetration of about 40% is required to achieve remarkable effects with the assistant and the effects can be increased up to a penetration rate of 80%. With the application of the bottleneck assistant, the delay of the vehicles blocked by the bottleneck is decreasing, while the delay of the non-blocked direction is increasing. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the assumptions regarding the cooperation behaviour and the interaction of the human drivers with the bottleneck assistant have a considerable impact on these results and thus, have to be investigated in more detail in future work. ... mehrFurthermore, simulations comparing the performance of the bottleneck assistant to the effect of a regular traffic light at the same bottleneck show a significant potential for optimizing the parametrization of the bottleneck assistant.