A study on driver behavior differences in emergency rear-end collision scenarios

Driver behavior in car-following scenarios is highly scenario-dependent. To explore the effect of different vehicle, rear-end collision urgent situations on driver behaviors, this study designed the experimental scenarios for the urgency of vehicle rear-end collisions based on virtual simulation technology. Based on the kinematics parameters of the two vehicles and the driver’s behavior, the driving behavior under different rear-end collision conflict risks was analyzed, and a rear-end collision risk prediction model was constructed by using the binary Logistic regression method. Meanwhile, the influence of the two-factor interaction effect on the risk of rear-end collision was explored by using XGBoost and SHAP methods. The results show that with the increase of collision urgency, the brake reaction time (BRT) is shortened, and the maximum deceleration and deceleration rate increase significantly ( p < 0.05). Under the same conflict urgency scenario, the higher speed of the lead vehicle will make a shorter BRT and following spacing, the maximum deceleration and the deceleration rate significantly increase ( p < 0.05). With the increase of braking deceleration in the lead vehicle, the BRT decreases significantly ( p < 0.05), but the following spacing and the maximum deceleration increase significantly ( p < 0.05). With the decrease in time to collision (TTC) and the increase in vehicle speed, the proportion of drivers taking braking steering behavior increases, and they generally take braking measures first. The rear-end collision prediction model can accurately predict the collision risk, and the accuracy is 85.2%. The results of this study could provide a reference for the further improvement of road traffic safety management and in-vehicle assistance systems.