Editorial

Abstract

Recently, considerable technological progress has been made in the field of Automated Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Electronic devices inform or support the driver in accident-prone driving situations, in order to improve the critical task of driving a motor vehicle. Potentially, ADAS offers important advantages for road transportation: increased control with respect to the speed and the position of vehicles on the road is important for establishing homogeneous traffic flows and reducing the number of accidents. As such ADAS is assumed to have a positive impact on the use of road infrastructure and traffic safety (Boussuge & Valade, 1994). Moreover, this could lead to a reduction of energy use and polluting gas emissions (Barth, 1995; Michaelian & Browand, 2000). As soon as parts of or the whole driving task are supported and/or executed automatically by ADAS, vehicle driving could become more comfortable and more convenient as compared to today’s manual driving (Stevens, 1997; Hoedemaeker, 1999). These expectations imply a high potential in individual and societal advantages. In various countries, therefore, transport policy makers are increasingly interested in the automation of vehicle driving tasks. However, current policy development regarding ADAS is highly complicated by, among others, much uncertainty on future ADAS development and implementation in terms of whether ADAS implementation will contribute to or conflict with transport policy goals, and the basic societal conditions required for ADAS implementation (Marchau, 2000)