Mathematical Model Using Three U.S. Datasets Revealed an 84 to 87 Percent Decrease in Fatality Risk and an 83 to 87 Percent Decrease in Injury Risk with Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB).
Model-Based Study Estimated Safety Benefits for Pedestrian Detection-Enabled AEB Systems for Cars and Light Trucks and Vans.
Nationwide, United States
Estimated benefit of automated emergency braking systems for vehicle–pedestrian crashes in the United States
Summary Information
Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems are advanced safety features in vehicles designed to detect potential collisions and automatically apply the brakes to prevent or mitigate impacts. This study estimated the benefit of AEB systems to pedestrians using a series of mathematical models, under the hypothetical scenario where all U.S. cars, light trucks, and vans were equipped with an AEB system with pedestrian detection capabilities. The researchers applied a theoretical AEB model to three real-world vehicle–pedestrian collisions datasets from across the United States,, covering the years 2011 to 2015. The three datasets are Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS), the General Estimates System (GES), and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). The model facilitated understanding the safety impacts of AEB in comparison to the estimated safety impacts considering vehicles with a modeled pedestrian-detecting AEB system (Pedestrian AEB).
METHODOLOGY
In this study, the Pedestrian AEB system was modeled to function by detecting the pedestrian and then applying emergency braking accounting for a range of computational latencies (0–0.3 s) and braking Time-to-Collision (TTC) thresholds (0.5–1.5 s). Lower computational latencies were also included with the assumption that, as systems improved, the computational latency was expected to decrease. The modeled Pedestrian AEB system calculated the time at which the pedestrian was detected by considering walking speeds and obstructions. A target population was used that included all vehicle–pedestrian collisions involving frontal impacts, excluding those resulting from loss of control, where the striking vehicle was a car or light truck, and the pedestrian was aged 15 years or older.
FINDINGS
- Results showed that AEB systems with pedestrian detection capability, reduced fatality risk in the target population between 84 and 87 percent, when compared to human drivers.
- Similarly, the results indicated a reduction of 83 to 87 percent in injury risk.
