Dealing With Uncertainty in Implementing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems: An Adaptive Approach

Abstract

Much has been written about the technologies of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) – electronic systems that support the driver in controlling his vehicle in a better way. Within this literature, there is usually a focus on specific ADAS technologies and/or specific aspects of ADAS implementation. Broader pictures of ADAS implementation, in which the various ADAS, their possible consequences for transportation system performance, and societal conditions for implementation are treated in an integrated way, are seldom presented. As such, the current value of these studies is highly limited with regard to public policymaking. In this paper, we take a system view of policymaking for ADAS implementation. Within this view, policymaking concerns making choices regarding a system (e.g., the transport system) in order to obtain desired system outcomes. We apply this view to the field of policymaking with respect to ADAS implementation, showing that large uncertainties exist about future transport system contexts, the outcomes of ADAS policy decisions, and the valuation of the outcomes by stakeholders involved in or affected by ADAS policy decisions. In order to deal with these uncertainties, a flexible or adaptive policy is proposed that takes some actions right away and creates a framework for future actions that allow for adaptations over time as knowledge about ADAS accumulates and critical events for ADAS implementation take place. The adaptive approach is illustrated in two contexts: (1) ADAS for road traffic safety, and (2) ADAS for road traffic efficiency.