Automated lane changes in transitional autonomous vehicles: Field evidence

By Danjue Chen on 10/01/2026 from 2:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. in 1611 Titan Dr., Rantoul, IL 61866

Join Danjue Chen, associate professor at North Carolina State University, as she presents via Zoom at the Fall 2026 Kent Seminar Series on Thursday, October 1, from 2:00-2:50 p.m. (CT).

The Fall 2026 Kent Seminar will explore advances in transportation engineering modeling. The 13-speaker series will begin August 27 and end November 19. 

Pizza and soft drinks will be provided beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the ICT Classroom. 

All presentations will be held on Zoom, but some speakers will present in person at ICT.

Join Zoom Webinar:
https://illinois.zoom.us/j/81698798883?pwd=dlHgbqirs442ZcdQJoP4bhbeE1mqOq.1

Webinar ID: 816 9879 8883
Passcode: 664625

Abstract and Bio

Transitional autonomous vehicles (tAVs) can independently make and execute lane-changing decisions under driver supervision, yet their lane-changing behavior remains poorly understood. Understanding these behaviors is important for assessing how emerging automated vehicles may affect traffic safety and operations and for developing realistic models of mixed traffic. This presentation draws on controlled public-road experiments involving 150 mandatory lane-change trials under systematically varied and challenging initial conditions. We examine how tAVs select target gaps, prepare longitudinally before lateral movement, execute lane changes and interact with surrounding vehicles, with particular attention to how these behaviors and associated safety risks vary across traffic conditions.

Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. Her research interests include automated vehicles, traffic flow theory and control, traffic safety and human-cyber-physical systems. She received her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.