Car crashes could be slashed by nearly a quarter by installing just one piece of kit, according new research. Putting an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) in all cars in the UK would cut out 23.8 per cent or nearly 19,000 accidents in the country each year.
The system can detect and avoid pedestrians, warn and correct if you’re straying out of your lane, recognise traffic signs, automatically put on the emergency brakes, and detect blind spots. Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) was the most powerful ADAS technology and reduced three out of the four most common accident categories according to researchers from Motion-S, Luxembourg, and Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software at University of Limerick (UL).
AEB stopped 28 percent of intersections, 27.7 percent of rear-ends and 28.4 percent of pedestrian accidents. After looking at publicly-available 2019 road safety reports from the UK the researchers predicted fully deploying ADAS would cut out 18,925 accidents each year - a reduction of 23.8 percent.
Dr Barry Sheehan of Lero at UL said: “Our research suggests that introducing ADAS across all vehicles would lower the number of road crashes by almost one quarter (23.8%). Furthermore, accidents happening in the two most frequent contexts can be reduced by 29%.
“That means a reduction of 7,020 accidents on urban roads with clear weather and daylight conditions and 3,472 on rural roads with clear weather and daylight conditions.”
Current research demonstrates connected and automated vehicles (CAV) would improve road safety substantially by reducing accident frequency and severity.
However, they have not been introduced as widely in the UK as they have in the US.
In May 2018 the American Automobile Association said 92.7 percent of new vehicles in the US have at least one ADAS.
In the UK and EU vehicles with ADAS and AEB are increasingly popular, and in Europe all vehicles produced by 2022 must have safety features that include AEB.
However, until now there has been little comprehensive research into the power of ADAS and AEB systems to prevent road crashes.
Writing in the journal Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives (TRIP), lead author Leandro Masello, Data Scientist at Motion-S and PhD Candidate at the Emerging Risk Group, UL, said despite the major road safety benefits of ADAS the system is often limited by challenging conditions such as poor weather.
He said: “The driving environment affects vehicle dynamics and sensor capabilities.
“A system that suddenly brakes to avoid a crash will perform better in dry weather conditions than in adverse conditions like heavy rain and ice, which reduce tyre traction and can cause the vehicle to skid.
“Similarly, inclement weather also impairs the sensors’ ability to perceive the environment accurately.
“For example, a snowstorm could obstruct the camera vision system or cover lane boundaries.”
Dr German Castignani, co-author and CEO of Motion-S, said road safety reports are essential to develop the car industry.
He said: “They provide information about the vehicles and casualties involved and the accident circumstances (e.g., geographical, temporal, and road information).
“Our work leverages such data to estimate the potential reductions in accidents that ADAS can mitigate.”
