Detection of Unintended Vehicle Behaviour for Driver Safety

The functional safety of electric vehicles has attracted a great deal of attention among automobile industries globally. A tricky yet necessary dual gamut of operational ease along with operational safety is something that cannot be ignored while using electric vehicles. Safety paired with vehicle reliability will go a long way in the market. Therefore, abnormal vehicle behavior due to factors such as unintended acceleration should not be kept in hindsight. Unintended acceleration is a phenomenon where the vehicle accelerates involuntarily without the knowledge of the driver which leads to accidents and fatal injuries. Thus, prior detection of unintended acceleration becomes mandatory for driver’s safety.

Unintended acceleration is a result of various uncontrolled conditions like road driving conditions and system malfunction. This paper aims to estimate the load torque of a vehicle by utilizing the vehicle drive train model thereby ensuring the timely detection of unwanted acceleration in a vehicle. Two hazard mitigation methods have also been proposed based on the severity and cause of unintended acceleration.