``
Home › Our People › Doctoral Candidates › DC6 – Mohammad Pashaee
DC6

Learning from the whole spectrum of driver behaviour: from unsafe to optimal driving

Mohammad Pashaee
Safer mobility
for a brighter
tomorrow
TU Delft logo
Haskoning logo
♧   Work Package 5
AI for Road User Assistance

Research at a glance

My research focuses on understanding road safety as a spectrum, rather than a binary state of safe or unsafe driving. Using naturalistic driving data, I analyse how drivers adapt to different road environments, traffic conditions, and other road users, with the aim of identifying patterns of safe, unsafe, and optimal driving behaviour. The ultimate goal is to derive insights that can support the design of safer and more adaptive transport systems, including applications for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Research objectives

  • Understand and learn from safety as a spectrum, based on the Safety-II concept.
  • Identify optimal driving behaviours in different environments and contexts.
  • Analyse the contributing factors and collective impact on the safety of different driver behaviours.
  • Derive insights for ADAS applications and real-world safety interventions.

Research progress

I am currently working with large-scale naturalistic driving datasets to identify and analyse driver adaptation patterns, with a focus on car-following behaviour. My work includes the development of a methodology to detect adaptation episodes based on relative velocity dynamics, and the application of data-driven methods such as DTW-based clustering to uncover temporal behaviour patterns. These analyses provide insights into how drivers adapt to different traffic situations and what characterises safe, unsafe, and optimal driving.

Publications

TitleAuthorsVenueYearLink
Driver Adaptation Patterns in Car-Following: A Preliminary Safety-II AnalysisPashaee, M., Papadimitriou, E., Tejada Ruiz, A., van Gelder, P.RSS2026
Speed Adaptation Patterns: A Safety-II Perspective on Naturalistic Driving DataPashaee, M., Papadimitriou, E., van Gelder, P.TRA2026

Conference contributions

TitleConferenceDateLink
Driver Adaptation Patterns in Car-Following:
A Preliminary Safety-II Analysis
RSS 2026
Naples, Italy
Jun 2026
Speed Adaptation Patterns: A Safety-II
Perspective on Naturalistic Driving Data
TRA 2026
Budapest, Hungary
May 2026

Secondments & collaborations

Host organisationPeriodPurposeStatus
LAB (France)Sep – Nov 2026Case study related to ADAS from
vehicle industry perspective
Upcoming
TNO (Netherlands)Mar – May 2026Review and exploit synergies with
existing TNO work on optimal driving
Completed