Maintaining driver autonomy with collision avoidance systems: a satisficing approach

The decision to invoke a collision and accident avoidance system must account for not only the capabilities of safety-enhancing technologies, but also the autonomy and preferences of the human driver. In the absence of a general theory of human interaction with complex systems, it is difficult to define and find an optimal resolution to these competing design requirements. Instead we develop a satisficing decision system which employs both requirements by comparing the safety benefit of a collision avoidance action against the cost to the driver to identify when to assist the driver. We illustrate the design procedure with a lane departure example.