Imitation learning provides a way to automatically construct a controller by mimicking human behavior from data. For safety-critical systems such as autonomous vehicles, it can be problematic to use controllers learned from data because they cannot be guaranteed to be collision-free. Recently, a method has been proposed for learning a multi-mode hybrid automaton cruise controller (MOHA). Besides being accurate, the logical nature of this model makes it suitable for formal verification. In this paper, we demonstrate this capability using the SpaceEx hybrid model checker as follows. We develop an automated tool to translate the automaton model into constraints and equations required by SpaceEx. We then verify that a pure MOHA controller is not collision-free. By adding a safety state based on headway in time, a rule that human drivers should follow anyway, we do obtain a provably safe cruise control. Moreover, the safe controller remains more humanlike than existing cruise controllers.

Car-following is the most general behavior in highway driving. It is crucial to recognize the cut-in intention of vehicles from an adjacent lane for safe and cooperative driving. In this paper, a method of behavior estimation is proposed to recognize and predict the lane change intentions based on the contextual traffic information. A model predictive controller is designed to optimize the acceleration sequences by incorporating the lane-change intentions of other vehicles. The public data set of next generation simulation is labeled and then published as a benchmarking platform for the research community. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately estimate vehicle behavior and therefore outperform the traditional car-following control.