This article features an interview with David Ward, secretary general of Global NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) who discusses the use of crash test data to encourage consumer demand for safety as well as to support regulatory and legislative change. Ward reminds readers that the NCAP movement grew out of the consumer-oriented focus on vehicle safety pioneered by Ralph Nader in the 1960s. Global NCAP was created in 2011 as a nonprofit agency registered in the U.K. and designed as a strategy to foster cooperation among the national and regional NCAPs. Ward shares his wish list of advanced driver assistance system technologies, notably electronic stability control (ESC) and automatic emergency braking (AEB). Readers are referred to the March 2015 Global NCAP document called “Democratising Car Safety,” which outlines universal standards for basic vehicle safety, including front and side impact crashworthiness, front and rear seatbelts, airbags, ESC, seatbelt reminders, and softer car fronts for pedestrian protection.
This brief article describes how Volvo is testing its City Safety collision avoidance system to help prevent crashes with animals. The system was designed for crash avoidance between cars, as well as for cyclists and pedestrians in city driving situations; large animal detection will be includes in the 2016 S90 and V90 models. The system includes radar and a camera, mounted behind the windshield, that detect moving objects and their direction, and that trigger automatic emergency braking (AEB) if necessary. The author describes the challenges that Volvo engineers have faced in modifying the City Safety system to identify and avoid crashes with kangaroos. The technology is being tested and calibrated in Canberra, Australia.
This article presents an interview with Dr. Michael Hafner, director of driver assistance systems and active safety at Mercedes-Benz. Dr. Hafner is in charge of the design and series development of brakes, chassis and driver assistance systems, including Mercedes-Benz’s Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Distronic Plus adaptive cruise control, Collision Prevention Assist, Driver Assistance Package Plus, and Active Park Assist with Parktronic. Dr. Hafner shares his ideas about key past and future safety milestones, discussing real-world performance of Mercedes-Benz safety technology; the need for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to work cooperatively as new devices are rolled out in the vehicle fleet; and the transformation to autonomous driving or, at the least, to humans taking a less active role in vehicle safety.
This article brings readers up-to-date on advances in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), together called V2X, and explores issues that need to be resolved before these technologies move from testing to mainstream application. Topics covered include the competing communication channels (IEEE 802.11p, which is a dedicated short-range communication or DSRC, and mobile internet); Mercedes-Benz’ latest V2X system; the need for cooperation between automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs); developing cooperative intelligent transportation systems in Europe; the interplay of V2X and active safety systems and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS); concerns about the lack of precision in GPS when used in ADAS settings; the use of V2X for autonomous platooning; and the use of V2X for emergency services. One sidebar presents brief comments from three leaders in the field on this topic: Dr. Alan Stevens (UK’s Transport Research Laboratory); Dr. Christoph Sommer (University of Paderborn, Germany); and Niels Peter Skov Andersen (Car 2 Car Communication Consortium).
This article presents three components that differ in the testing and development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) compared to fully autonomous vehicles: ADAS functions are designed for a limited set of scenarios; ADAS functions are self-contained and have no interaction with the environment, while fully automated vehicles must have vehicle to everything (V2X) capabilities; and ADAS functions always consider the driver the backup to take control of the vehicle, compared to no driver backup in the vehicle with fully automated driving. These three differences are discussed in relation to the testing and validation that must be undertaken by the automotive industry. The authors also describe how TASS International (Netherlands) is using a simulation environment called PreScan and coupled it with the German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS) data.
