FUNDAMENTAL STUDY ON EFFECT OF ECO-DRIVING BEHAVIOR OF PRECEDING VEHICLE ON FOLLOWING VEHICLE
DOI: 10.2208/jscejipm.67.67_i_1023
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Summary
This study investigates the impact of eco-driving behaviors exhibited by preceding vehicles on the driving characteristics and fuel efficiency of following vehicles. Motivated by Japan’s Kyoto Protocol targets and the significant contribution of the transport sector to national CO2 emissions, the research addresses a gap in existing literature: while the fuel-saving benefits of eco-driving for individual drivers are well-documented, the quantitative effects on traffic flow and following vehicles remain underexplored. Specifically, the authors examine whether providing information about a preceding vehicle’s eco-driving pattern influences the behavior of the driver behind it. The researchers conducted experiments using a high-fidelity driving simulator at Keio University, featuring a 360-degree visual field and motion platform. Ten male participants (aged 20–25) were divided into two groups: one group received information about the preceding vehicle’s driving pattern via an in-car navigation display, while the other did not. The preceding vehicle simulated three driving patterns: normal driving, constant-speed driving, and eco-driving (characterized by gentle acceleration and minimal speed fluctuations). Participants followed the preceding vehicle through a virtual urban course under six experimental conditions combining these patterns. Fuel consumption was calculated using a fuel consumption map based on engine speed and accelerator input, while headway distances were recorded continuously. The results indicated that the preceding vehicle’s eco-driving pattern significantly improved its own fuel efficiency, with eco-driving showing a 10.2% improvement over normal driving. For the following vehicles, providing information about the preceding vehicle’s driving pattern led to a statistically significant reduction in average headway distance (p=0.024). Participants in the informed group reported being able to predict the preceding vehicle’s actions and adjust their own driving accordingly, resulting in smoother, more consistent following behavior. However, no statistically significant difference in fuel efficiency was observed for the following vehicles themselves, regardless of whether they received information. The study concludes that sharing information about a preceding vehicle’s eco-driving behavior allows following drivers to reduce headway distances, potentially increasing traffic density and improving overall traffic flow efficiency. While this did not directly translate to measurable fuel savings for the following drivers in this specific experimental setup, the ability to maintain closer, more stable following distances suggests that such information systems could support smoother traffic flow. The authors note limitations regarding the small, young sample size and the two-vehicle scope, recommending future studies with larger, more diverse participant groups and multi-vehicle scenarios to further validate these findings.
Key finding
Providing information about the preceding vehicle's eco-driving pattern significantly reduces the average headway distance of the following vehicle.
Methodology
simulator
Sample size: 10
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via author_sweep_intake on 2026-05-28.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | author_sweep | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-28 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-28 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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