A cooperative driving system with automated vehicles and inter-vehicle communications in Demo 2000

This paper describes the technologies of the cooperative driving with automated vehicles and inter-vehicle communications in the Demo 2000 cooperative driving. The cooperative driving, aiming at the compatibility of safety and efficiency of road traffic, here means that automated vehicles drive by forming a flexible platoon over a couple of lanes with a short inter-vehicle distance while performing lane changing, merging, and leaving the platoon. The vehicles for the demonstration are equipped with automated lateral and longitudinal control functions with localization data by the DGPS and the inter-vehicle communication function with 5.8 GHz DSRC designed for the dedicated use in the demonstration. In order to show the feasibility and potential of the technologies, the demonstration was held in November, 2000 on a test track with 5 automated vehicles. The scenario included stop & go, platooning, merging and obstacle avoidance.