The Promise of Advanced Technologies in Future Total Safety Delivery
SAE-PP-00096
03/07/2021
- Content
- The motivation for this paper grew out of several years of observations related to the progress or lack thereof in safety, particularly in active safety. Further, many advanced technologies have brought forward new opportunities for further improvement in safety; at the same time, the promise of technologies, if taken too far, could also possibly result in diminishing safety returns unless a cautious approach based on safety research and testing, is undertaken. The recent increases in traffic deaths in the United States in spite of the many advanced driver assistance systems that have come into the fleet in the last several years is surprising. The changing composition of the vehicle fleet, the rapid development and the sudden interest in even more advanced technologies as the solution to many of our safety problems without adequate research, test and evaluation, is therefore, even a major concern. Passive safety systems that are in vehicles of today were generally phased in by the Government over a period of three or four years from the date of its implementation of regulations by the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), or through New Car Assessment Programs (NCAP). Along with this, other consumer information and rating programs such as those by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, may have been the main drivers for safety enhancement. However, NHTSA or others have not yet found an effective method by which active-safety countermeasures that have proven safety performance and metrics, to proliferate them in vehicles through regulations or other means. During the last several years, vehicle manufacturers have marketed many such Advanced Driver Assistance (ADAS) features in their vehicles. However, it is not clear to what extent these driver assistance systems and other active safety technologies may have impacted overall safety. If there was a clear, beneficial impact of these, it is not evident from the overall crash statistics. Under these circumstances, a clear strategy is essential with regard to the deployment of all safety technologies that are likely to come forward in the near future, especially the most advanced technologies such as those found in fully and partially autonomous vehicles. This paper is based on an oral presentation (with power point slides) I made virtually at a conference of Traffic Safety Scientists and Engineers In Nagoya, Japan during the last week of November, 2020.
- Citation
- Kanianthra, J., "The Promise of Advanced Technologies in Future Total Safety Delivery," SAE MobilityRxiv™ Preprint, submitted March 7, 2021, https://doi.org/10.47953/SAE-PP-00096.