Analysis of Off-Roadway Crash Countermeasures for Intelligent Vehicle Applications

This paper analyzes off-roadway crash countermeasure systems in support of the United States (U.S.) Department of Transportation's Intelligent Vehicle Initiative. Off-roadway crashes transpire when a moving vehicle departs the travel roadway and then experiences its first harmful event. This paper defines off-roadway crashes and describes their pre-crash scenarios and crash contributing factors. This information is then utilized to develop countermeasure concepts and concomitant functional requirements to warn drivers of imminent road edge crossing or vehicle control loss on straight or curved roadways. A technology survey follows to assess the status of state-of-the-art technologies within the categories of vehicle-based, infrastructure-based, or cooperative vehicle-infrastructure systems. This paper concludes with forecasts of the progression of future countermeasure systems towards the realm of cooperative technologies.