A hybrid approach for identifying factors affecting driver reaction time using naturalistic driving data

Abstract The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) estimates that 80% of the deaths and injuries resulting from rear-end collisions could be prevented by the use of advanced collision avoidance systems. While autonomous or higher-level vehicles will be equipped with this technology by default, most of the vehicles on our roadways will lack these advances, so rear-end crashes will dominate accident statistics for many years to come. However, a simple and cost-effective in-vehicle device that uses predictive tools and real-time driver-behavior and roadway data can significantly reduce the likelihood of these crashes. In this paper, we propose a hybrid physics/data-driven approach that can be used in a kinematic-based forward-collision warning system. In particular, we use a hierarchical regularized regression model to estimate driver reaction time based on individual driver characteristics, driving behavior, and surrounding driving conditions. This personalized reaction time is input into the Brill’s one-dimensional car-following model to calculate the critical distance for collision warning. We use the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP-2)’s Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS) data, the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, to model driver brake-to-stop response time. The results show that the inclusion of driver characteristics increases model precision in predicting driver reaction times.