The most difficult at-fault fatal crashes to avoid with current active safety technology

Objective We studied which current fatal at-fault crashes would occur despite the most advanced current active safety devices (up to SAE level 2 of driving automation) and how frequent these crashes would be. Methods We carried out a cross-sectional study of passenger cars that were first registered during the period 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2017 in Finland. To gain the true exposure for these cars, we accessed the national Vehicular and Driver Data Register to obtain the mileage information and the registration count for the study period of 2010-17. Similarly, we accessed the registry of Finnish road accident investigation teams and included all fatal at-fault crashes among the cars in our study for the same period. We used a real world reference technology for each active safety system in our analysis and chose one car brand as an example. This gave us exact system specifications and enabled testing the operation of the systems on the road. We performed field tests to gain further information on the precise operation of the safety systems in different operating conditions. Finally, we gathered all information on the studied active safety systems and analyzed the investigated at-fault fatal crashes case-by-case using our four level method. Results Cars in our study were the primary party in 113 investigated fatal accidents during the years 2010-17. In 87 of the accidents, the leading cause of death was the injuries due to the crash, and these cases were classified as “unavoidable” (n = 58, 67 %), “avoidable” (n = 26, 30 %) or unsolved (n = 3, 3 %). Of the 58 “unavoidable” crashes 21 (36 %) were suicides, 21 (36%) involved active driver input which would have prevented the safety system operation, 15 (17 %) featured circumstances beyond the safety system performance and in one loss-of-control crash the driver had disabled the relevant safety system (electronic stability control). The registration years of the cars in our study (2010-17) totaled 3,772,864 and during this period, the cars travelled 75.9 billion kilometers. The crash incidence of the “unavoidable” at-fault fatal crashes was 0.76-0.80 fatal crashes per billion kilometers and 15-16 fatal crashes per million registration years. Conclusions We calculated a crash incidence for the “unavoidable” crashes which was 20–27% smaller than the observed crash rate of ESC-fitted passenger cars in our previous study. We concluded that suicides, active driver input until the crash, and challenging weather and road conditions are the most difficult factors for current active safety systems. Our analysis did not account for issues such as system usability or driver acceptance and therefore our results should be regarded as something that is currently theoretically achievable. However, the observed incidence is a good reference for automated driving development and the crash rate of automated cars.Peer reviewe

Training sensory signal-to-noise resolution in children with ADHD in a global mental health setting

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impaired focus on goal-relevant signals and fail to suppress goal-irrelevant distractions. To address both these issues, we developed a novel neuroplasticity-based training program that adaptively trains the resolution of challenging sensory signals and the suppression of progressively more challenging distractions. We evaluated this sensory signal-to-noise resolution training in a small sample, global mental health study in Indian children with ADHD. The children trained for 30 h over 6 months in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Training completers showed steady and significant improvements in ADHD-associated behaviors from baseline to post training relative to controls, and benefits sustained in a 6-month follow-up. Post-training cognitive assessments showed significant positive results for response inhibition and Stroop interference tests in training completers vs controls, while measures of sustained attention and short-term memory showed nonsignificant improvement trends. Further, training-driven improvements in distractor suppression correlated with the improved ADHD symptoms. This initial study suggests utility of signal-to-noise resolution training for children with ADHD; it emphasizes the need for further research on this intervention and substantially informs the design of a larger trial