Assessing the Feasibility of Adding Additional Actors to Intersection Safety Assist Draft Test Scenarios

Davis, Ian J.; Forkenbrock, Garrick J. · 2021 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This report evaluates the feasibility of incorporating an additional actor, specifically a Secondary Other Vehicle (SOV), into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) draft research test procedures for Intersection Safety Assist (ISA) systems. The motivation for this study was to determine if adding complexity to existing test scenarios would significantly impact technical and logistical efforts, thereby enhancing the agency’s ability to assess vehicle performance in more complex, real-world driving situations. The study focused on two core scenarios: Scenario 1, where a Principal Other Vehicle (POV) drives straight across the Subject Vehicle’s (SV) path, and Scenario 3, where the SV turns left across the POV’s path. The experimental design utilized a 2017 BMW 540i as the SV, equipped with steering, brake, and throttle robots to ensure precise choreography, though it lacked an ISA system. The POV and SOV were surrogate vehicles mounted on robotic platforms. Tests were conducted at the SMART Center in Ohio using near-miss timing to avoid crash-imminent impacts and equipment wear. Each core scenario included three sub-scenarios varying vehicle speeds and acceleration profiles: Sub-scenario A involved all actors traveling at constant speed; Sub-scenario B involved the POV accelerating from rest; and Sub-scenario C involved the SV accelerating from rest. Validity criteria included strict tolerances for vehicle speed, path deviation, and near-miss distances, defined as 6.6 ± 0.8 feet between vehicles at specific assessment points. The results indicated that adding an SOV increased test complexity but did not significantly increase overall effort, as the iterative process required to achieve proper timing remained comparable to tests without the SOV. Validity criteria were satisfied for five of the six test conditions. However, the S1+SOV Sub-scenario C trials failed to meet the SV-to-SOV near-miss distance requirement, exceeding the desired distance by an average of 7.1 feet. This discrepancy was attributed to choreography timing issues that could likely be resolved with further refinement. Notably, despite the SV being equipped with an Automatic Emergency Braking system, no alerts or interventions occurred during any near-miss trials. The study concludes that it is feasible to add an additional actor to ISA test scenarios using near-miss choreography, implying that crash-imminent testing is also viable with minor adjustments. The primary challenge identified was coordinating precise vehicle-to-vehicle distances, which required iterative data analysis and position offsets. These findings support the expansion of ISA test procedures to include more complex multi-actor scenarios, improving the robustness of safety research for advanced driver assistance systems.

Key finding

Adding a secondary actor to ISA test scenarios is feasible and does not significantly increase testing effort, with five of six test conditions satisfying all validity criteria.

Methodology

simulator

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• naturalistic crash near crash

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: standards test procedures
• Methodological Resource: validation psychometrics