Adaptive Cruise Control - Towards a Safer Driving Experience

There is perhaps no better symbol of the 21st century than the automobile. It is the dominant means of transport aspired to throughout the world; indeed, many a politician throughout this century has furthered his or her career by promising constituents a greater economic ability to own an automobile. Furthermore, there are more automobiles on the road than any other motorized vehicle. As of 1986, almost half a b illion vehicles were on the road throughout the world; over three-quarters of these were cars. With this comes the responsibility of making safety a primary concern in vehicle technologies. Technologies like Anti lock braking system and Vehicle stability Control System are being used to monitor vehicular safety. Similarly, a new type of speed control, called adaptive cruise control, is being used on some new model vehicles. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is an automotive feature that allows a vehicle's cruise control system to adapt the vehicle's speed to the traffic environment. It is basically an extension of conventional cruise control systems. These systems allow you to set a following distance, or time interval, between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead, as well as a maximum speed. In this paper, we present a case study on adaptive cruise control as modelled on the Audi A8.