Learning from experience: Familiarity with ACC and responding to a cut-in situation in automated driving

Response times to risky events have been seen to increase with the use of adaptive cruise control (ACC). It has been unclear whether driver experience with ACC mediates this increase. We compare driving in a cut-in event in a simulator both with and without system support, studying ACC as well as ACC with automatic steering. 31 participants were tested in a repeated-measures design, 10 novices and 21 previously experienced with ACC. There was no difference between responding to ACC with and without automatic steering for either group. As expected, we found an increase in response times when driving with system support for both ACC-experienced drivers and ACC-novices. However, this effect was significantly lower for those previously experienced with ACC. This indicates that there is an element of learning involved not only in knowing about system limitations, but also in responding to potential hazards.