Study Using a Population of 1.2 Million Vehicles With and Without Automated Driving Assistance Features Estimated a 16 Percent Reduction in Crashes Due to Effective Forward Collision Alert.
Comprehensive Comparative Study Linking 35,401 Vehicles With and Without Safety Systems to a Crash Database for 13 States in the USA Found Safety Benefits.
Nationwide, United States
Crash Avoidance Technology Evaluation Using Real-World Crash Data
Summary Information
Vehicles equipped with safety technologies, such as collision warning and lane keep assist systems, have a lower risk of getting into road crashes. Although these systems may be tested in simulations, on test tracks, and on public roads prior to release, crash data are critical to accurately assessing achieved safety benefits in the field. This study estimated the field performance of a variety of crash avoidance technologies by utilizing crash data for 35,401 vehicles sampled from a larger dataset on optional safety content/features for 1.2 million vehicles of a variety of model year 2013-2015 makes, models, and active safety (crash avoidance) systems. The analysis dataset included vehicles with and without safety technology, as well as a variety of crash descriptors at the crash, vehicle, and driver levels. Other relevant variables such as driver age, speed limit, intoxication, fatigue, weather, road surface condition, vehicle type, and vehicle model, were also taken into consideration. The safety content considered in this study fell generally into four categories: forward, lateral, rear (backing) collision avoidance, and advanced headlighting systems.
METHODOLOGY
This study estimated the effectiveness of safety technologies by comparing “system-relevant” crashes to a baseline (control) crash type for vehicles equipped or not-equipped with each system. One of the crash avoidance systems evaluated in this study was Forward Collison Alert (FCA) which provided alerts if a front-end collision situation was imminent. If the Front (or Forward) Automatic Braking (FAB) system detected that a front-end collision situation was likely, and the driver had not already applied the brakes, FAB would automatically engage the brakes. FAB-equipped vehicles always included FCA and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). The second set of crash avoidance systems considered in this study was lateral avoidance systems, which included Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Lane Keep Assist (LKA), Side Blind Zone Alert (SBZA) providing side mirror alerts when a moving vehicle was detected in the side blind zone, and Lane Change Alert (LCA). Third, in terms of backing and parking systems, this study evaluated Rear Cross-Traffic Alert (RCTA), Rear Park Assist (RPA), Rear Vision Camera (RVC), and Rear (or Reverse) Automatic Braking (RAB) systems.
FINDINGS
- This study estimated a 16 percent reduction in frontal (rear-end striking) crashes due to FCA.
- FAB system (only offered with ACC) produced an estimated 45 percent reduction in the frontal crashes.
- For lane departure crashes, LKA system showed an estimated 30 percent reduction.
- LCA system with SBZA was 32 percent effective in addressing lane-change crashes.
- For backing crashes, this study also estimated that RAB was 82 percent effective, while RCTA and RPA are 55 percent and 36 percent effective, respectively.
When the analysis was focused on RVC and RPA for sedans, the combination produced an estimated 51 percent reduction in backing crashes.
