Thesis work 30 hp - Handling Strategies for Cut-ins in Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)

Background 
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is today a common Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) in modern vehicles. It helps the driver maintain a safe distance to the vehicle ahead by automatically adjusting acceleration and braking. One challenging scenario for ACC is cut-ins, when another vehicle changes lanes and moves into the ego vehicle’s lane.

Cut-ins can vary widely in severity – from smooth and harmless to sudden and risky. Current ACC systems may sometimes react too aggressively (hard braking even for non-critical cut-ins) or too slowly (resulting in dangerously short following distances). Both safety and driver comfort can be negatively affected, as well as trust in the system.

Objective

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and compare different strategies for how ACC should handle cut-ins, with the goal of finding an optimal balance between safety and comfort, with driver acceptance as an additional aspect.

Job description

The work will involve implementation of alternative strategies, resimulation of traffic scenarios (e.g., in MATLAB/Simulink) and evaluation based on safety and comfort. Driver acceptance can also be evaluated for each strategy based on e.g. testing, but is not the main focus of this thesis.

• Identify and categorize common cut-in scenarios through literature studies or simulation data.
• Implement and evaluate different handling strategies, such as:
• Immediate braking (emergency strategy).
• Smooth adaptation of speed using prediction of the cut-in vehicle’s acceleration.
• Hybrid strategy with risk classification (aggressive response only for critical cut-ins).
• Evaluate the strategies with respect to:
• Safety: time-to-collision, minimum distance.
• Comfort: jerk (rate of change in acceleration), smoothness of braking.
• Driver acceptance: perceived trust/irritation in the function (through e.g. testing or resimulation).

Education/program/focus

Indicate education, program or focus: Mechanical Engineering, Control Engineering, Computer Science, or Automotive Engineering.

Number of students: 1-2

Start date for the thesis work: January 2026

Estimated time required: 6 months

Contact persons and supervisors
Carolina Pahkasalo, Development engineer and supervisor, 070-0814698, carolina.pahkasalo@scania.com

Application:
Your application must include a CV, personal letter and transcript of grades

A background check might be conducted for this position. We are conducting interviews continuously and may close the recruitment earlier than the date specified.