A Study Based in New Zealand Assessed Safety Improvements for Fleets Equipped with Lane Keep Assist Technology.
New Zealand
Use of in-vehicle technologies to assist with and encourage safe and efficient driving behaviour
Summary Information
In-vehicle technologies facilitating safer and more efficient driving are becoming increasingly available. The goal for this study was to understand which technologies would provide the greatest safety and efficiency benefits in the New Zealand context, and how best to achieve increased adoption of these technologies. Several in-vehicle technologies were considered in this study, such as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Lane Keep Assist (LKA), Rear Collision Warning (RCW), Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA), Alcohol Interlock System (AIS), Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning (DDAW), Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW), and Lane Departure Warning (LDW). The study examined the link between these in-vehicle technologies to safety and efficiency improvements and estimated the extent to which such technologies were likely to deliver cost-effective improvements using data analysis and stakeholder interviews and workshop.
METHODOLOGY
Interviews were conducted with end-users and seasoned industry experts to explore the facilitators and obstacles associated with in-vehicle technologies. A total of 16 participants were interviewed for approximately 45 minutes to an hour each. Additionally, collision data from New Zealand's Crash Analysis System (CAS) from 2016 to 2020 were examined to assess the potential reduction in casualties or collisions if vehicles were equipped with these technologies, as well as the associated cost savings. First,social costs were assigned to each technology's target population to estimate the overall cost of casualties for each technology in the study. Next, effectiveness estimates (i.e., crash modification factors) were applied to determine the projected number of casualties prevented due to the deployment of each technology. These were then multiplied by the respective social costs, to estimate the associated cost savings reported in this study. The benefit findings were predicated on the assumption that the technology adoption rate would increase from zero percent (no vehicles in the fleet equipped with the technology) to one hundred percent (all vehicles in the fleet equipped with the technology).
FINDINGS
Assuming an increase in adoption rate from 0 percent to 100 percent, the benefit findings for each technology, based on June 2019 currency, are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Potential cost savings in New Zealand dollars (million NZD) associated with each technology (conversion to US dollars [million USD] is listed in parentheses).
| Technology | Car (million $) | Van (million $) | Bus (million $) | Truck (million $) |
| AEB V2V (vehicle to vehicle) | 61 NZD (40 USD) | 12 NZD (8 USD) | 0.14 NZD (0.09 USD) | 2 NZD (1.32 USD) |
| AEB V2C (vehicle to cyclist) | 30 NZD (20 USD) | 11 NZD (7 USD) | - | - |
| AEB V2P (vehicle to pedestrian) | 228 NZD (150 USD) | 78 NZD (51 USD) | - | - |
| FCW | 31 NZD (20 USD) | - | - | - |
| LKA | 1617 NZD (1067 USD) | 364 NZD (240 USD) | - | - |
| LDW | - | - | 19 NZD (13 USD) | 73 NZD (48 USD) |
| ISA | 160 NZD (106 USD) | 23 NZD (15 USD) | 9 NZD (6 USD) | 11 NZD (7 USD) |
| RCW | 64 NZD (42 USD) | 16 NZD (11 USD) | 0.35 NZD (0.23 USD) | 5 NZD (3 USD) |
| ADDW | 290 NZD (191 USD) | 59 NZD (39 USD) | 3 NZD (2 USD) | 24 NZD (16 USD) |
| DDAW | 147 NZD (97 USD) | 34 NZD (22 USD) | 2 NZD (1.32 USD) | 13 NZD (9 USD) |
| AIS | 333 NZD (220 USD) | 78 NZD (51 USD) | 3 NZD (2 USD) | 13 NZD (9 USD) |
- Assuming all cars and vans in the fleet were fitted with the technology, the estimated savings were the largest for LKA, around 1,617 million NZD (1,067 million USD) and 364 million NZD (240 million USD), respectively.
- For cars, technologies like AIS, DDAW, ADDW and AEB V2P were estimated to have large savings of over 100 million NZD (66 million USD) each.
- In the case of buses and trucks, LDW was estimated to have high savings of around 19 million NZD (13 million USD) and 73 million NZD (48 million USD), respectively.
