Abstract
This paper discusses design of a support function to avoid a collision with a vehicle in a dead zone when the host vehicle is going to change lanes. The following three types of support functions are compared: (1) a warning type support in which an auditory alert is given to the driver to enhance situation awareness, (2) an action type support with soft protection that resists the driver doing the dangerous steering maneuver by making the steering wheel heavier, and (3) an action type support with hard protection in which the driver steering input is canceled to prevent a collision with the vehicle in the dead zone. The results of an experiment on a driving simulator showed that action type supports were effective to improve safety. In particular, the hard protection was more effective than the soft protection for collision avoidance. The results also showed that the hard protection was as acceptable as the other two systems.
