Analysis of Driver Behaviors while Using In-Vehicle Traffic Light with Partial Deployment of V2I Communication

An in-vehicle traffic light system was proposed to assist drivers at intersections, by displaying traffic light inside vehicles based on vehicular communication. Driving simulator experiments have demonstrated that the system can be an effective method to provide assistance for drivers. However, previous studies assumed that all the vehicles were equipped with vehicular communication devices and the proposed in-vehicle traffic light, which is still impossible in the actual driving environment. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the availability of the system in a driving condition when both in-vehicle traffic light equipped and unequipped vehicles exist. This study implemented the in-vehicle traffic light system with a real electric vehicle at a signalized intersection, based on V2I communication. An experiment involving 12 participants and two vehicles were performed, to analyze the influences on driver behaviors while applying the in-vehicle traffic light in a partial deployment environment. It was observed that the application of in-vehicle traffic light in a preceding vehicle could significantly reduce the maximum deceleration of its following vehicle, even when the following vehicle was unequipped with the system.