Independent Evaluation of Heavy-Truck Safety Applications Based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications Used in the Safety Pilot Model Deployment

Overview

This report presents the methodology and results of the independent evaluation of heavy trucks (HTs) in the Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD); part of the United States Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems research program. In 2012 the SPMD deployed approximately 2,800 vehicles equipped with designated short-range-communication-based vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology in a real-world driving environment. The goals of the independent evaluation were to characterize capability, assess unintended consequences, and gauge driver acceptance of the V2V and V2I safety applications. The evaluation is based on naturalistic driving by 33 participants who drove HTs equipped with integrated and retrofit safety devices (RSDs). The V2V and V2I devices in the 3 integrated trucks and 16 trucks equipped with RSDs contained a suite of safety applications that issued alerts to participants in potential crash scenarios. The results of the analysis suggest that V2V safety applications work in real-world environment and issue useful alerts in driving conflicts, but improvements in their accuracy are needed. Results from the SPMD will help shape future research direction.