Perceived safety benefits of aftermarket driver support systems: Results from a large scale European field operational test (FOT)

A field operational test (FOT) is a technique used within traffic safety to evaluate the overall value of in-vehicle information systems (IVISs) under normal operating conditions. In this study, a pan-European FOT was used to evaluate Navigation, Speed Information/Alert, Traffic Information, and Green Driving Support functions together with participants’ perceptions of safety’ before, during, and after using the functions. Through utilization and adherence to the FOT methodology, data were collected over a period ranging from 8 to 16 months in five European countries in order to assess the driver pre-conceived ideas and subsequent subjective and objective experiences with the IVIS functions. Several analyses of data were conducted, and this paper describes the results relating to the ‘user-experience’ as evaluated through subjective responses. The study showed that before the FOTs started, overall participants expected a higher safety benefit through using Speed Alert compared to the other functions. This function was also perceived to offer the highest safety benefit after the FOT had been completed. Perceptions of safety were found to be lowest for the green-driving function. The results offer insights into public expectations of IVIS functions and how these change with experience and overall; they suggest that, in some cases, the perception to safety benefits could be somewhat misplaced

Side airbag deployments in the UK - initial case reviews

As in-vehicle safety technology becomes more prevalent, the corresponding fitment of side airbags in the United Kingdom is now more commonplace. This study adds to the body of knowledge on real world impacts by presenting initial cases of deployment from the UK, including examples where there is some suggestion that side airbag deployment may have contributed to injury outcomes. With the introduction of new restraint devices into the vehicle fleet, manufacturers and engineers are not only eager to quantify their benefit and injury mitigation effectiveness but to also consider the performance and application in the real world. Whilst there are presently insufficient numbers of cases to fully evaluate injury benefit in side impacts, individual case evaluations can provide an initial assessment of side airbag field performance. In this study, data from 47 crashes in which the side airbag deployed were available for analysis. Of these, 19 occupants sustained a MAIS ≥ 2 injury. Case reviews have identified 2 occupants where serious (AIS 3) thoracic injuries may have occurred through interaction with the deploying side airbag and a further case involving upper extremity fracture (AIS 3) was also thought to have been associated with side airbag deployment. In these 3 cases, crash severity and compartmental deformation were not considered to be extensive. However in the majority of cases, side airbag deployment did not cause injury to the occupant and a general overview of these cases is given

European TeleFOT project: Benefit-cost analysis for SatNav and EcoDrive technologies

Calculation of benefit-cost-ratios (BCRs) is a commonly used methodology by governments in determining the need for future regulation. This study was undertaken as part of the European Commission’s field trial TeleFOT program provided new findings on the likely benefit-cost safety and environmental outcomes for satellite navigation (SatNav) and (EcoDrive) technologies in Europe. The findings showed that for a range of scenarios, the best benefit-cost-ratio for SatNav was markedly above its economic cost (BCR>1). While a BCR for EcoDrive could not be calculated because of missing data, the fitment rates required to achieve a breakeven outcome were quite achievable. The figures for the worst scenario outcomes were less impressive, generally failing to achieve break-even (BCRs less than one) or required higher fitment rates. BCRs for both technologies combined showed ratios between 3.16 and 2.78, assuming a 5% EcoDrive fitment rate

Exploring pathways to negate safety concerns and improve public acceptance of alternative fuelled electric vehicles

Restricted emission regulations force the transportation sector to seek a better vehicle fuel solution, and the uptake of Electric Vehicle is to be encouraged because it has no exhaust emission. Previous literature had shown that range freedom and cost were the main barriers and safety aspects were often considered as technological issues. Recent research indicates that early adopters of innovative EVs do have concerns about safety issues although it was not on top of the list. However, research into the public perception of alternative fuelled EVs in terms of safety has been limited to date. In this paper, a quantitative study is undertaken to investigate the public safety concern of three types of vehicle powertrain: the internal combustion engine, the hybrid electric and the solely electric vehicle. The survey consisted of two identical sets of questionnaires (one was in English, and another in Chinese) to collect data from people with different cultural background. It was expected that this would provide a reasonable number of responses to reflect the public. This study indicates that the main safety concerns are associated with the level of vehicle knowledge and the power supply components despite the powertrain type. The high awareness of mechanical failure is only evident in the conventional fuel powertrain and gradually reduced when moving towards solely electric powertrain to compensate for the rise of electrical failure awareness. It also indicates that the awareness of the specifics of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is not widespread amongst the public as almost all the participants considered that the electric vehicle is powered by batteries only. As a result, this paper suggests that there is a need to educate the drivers with the desired knowledge while simply driving the vehicle could potentially be an effective way to improve public acceptance of any alternative fuel vehicl

Re-inventing the journey experience - A multifaceted framework to comfort in autonomous vehicles

Future vehicles provide scope to completely re-invent the journey experience. Technological advances have enabled fast progression of driving automation which has the potential to deliver efficient, accessible, sustainable and clean transport systems. Level 4 autonomous vehicles provide an exciting opportunity for drivers and passengers to engage in many activities unrelated to the driving task (e.g. reading, work communication/social networking on mobile technologies, relaxing, watching films etc.) leading to benefits in terms of comfort, pleasure and productivity. There has already been a lot of work looking at the active safety systems autonomous vehicles will need to use as well as the accompanying Human Machine Interface (HMI). For example, studies that look at the time it takes to hand over control from the vehicle to the occupant, and from the occupant to the vehicle. However, little is known regarding the nature of the secondary activities that drivers will want to undertake, and how this will impact occupant comfort, the vehicle architecture, its features and functional safety systems. To understand the ergonomic and engineering impact, first we must capture and fully understand user needs and their preferences in terms of the type of activities that could be undertaken in-vehicle. Re-inventing the journey experience is a research program addressing the lack of research around the user experience of autonomous vehicles. The main aims of the program are to: (1) understand potential for improving the travelling experience; (2) understand what the ergonomic, legislative, safety and comfort constraints are in order to identify design constraints; (3) understand how design innovations can support new occupant requirements. This paper presents a multifaceted framework which aims to guide researchers and industry professionals to more pragmatic vehicle concepts

Methodological aspects of field operational tests of after-market and nomadic driver support systems and impacts on mobility

Background: This paper reports on the methodology undertaken and some results achieved within a study of drivers using aftermarket and nomadic devices (the TeleFOT project). Objective: To evaluate the methodology for conducting Field Operational Tests for Information and Communication Technology whilst also providing an example of the method applied in the context of mobility within the TeleFOT project. Method: ‘Top down, bottom up’ approach to the derivation of research questions and hypotheses is described. Statistical analysis has been undertaken on data collected through Field Operational Tests and Travel Diaries considering the impact of information functions (such as navigation, traffic information and green driving) upon journey length. Results: A summary of the results relating specifically to how the length of a journey can be affected by information functions indicates that Navigation and Traffic information can reduce the length of journeys whilst Green Driving functions tend to increase the journey length. Conclusion: The FOT methodology was successfully applied in the TeleFOT project as was the novel method for generating research questions. When turning the theoretical FOT method developed in FESTA into practice, several good innovations were made which and can be recommended for future FOTs; collation of metadata, the use of comparable origin / destination pairs for analysis, centralised processing of raw data into legs in order to simplify the analysis of the huge datasets collected in the project

Struck side crashes involving post-regulatory European passenger cars - crash characteristics and injury outcomes

This study examines some characteristics of struck side impact crashes involving post-regulatory passenger cars. The UK National Accident Database (STATS 19) and UK In-depth Accident Database (CCIS) were analysed to determine crash characteristics and injury outcomes in struck side impacts. UK national accident data shows that clear improvements in injury outcomes in side impacts have been observed when a sample of ‘older’ vehicle designs are compared to ‘newer’ vehicle designs. Analysis of the characteristics of crashes in which serious injury occurs suggests that the conditions in terms of collision speed and height of impact (on the struck vehicle) do not usually match those of the UNECE R95 test specification. Mitigation of serious head and chest injuries remains a challenge in struck-side impact crashes; head injuries are most frequently associated with a contact with an external object and chest injuries with the intruding side door

Analysis of injuries to young and old Victorian public transport users: 2006-2010

A study was undertaken to identify injurious events to users of public transport systems in Australia to assist in the UK project on Improving the Safety for Older Public Transport Users. Two analyses were undertaken comprising an analysis of surveillance data (the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset), collected at a number of participating trauma hospitals in the state of Victoria, and an analysis of National Coronial Information System (NCIS) data in Australia. For the VEMD database, details of injuries were recorded on attendance and the patients’ account of the circumstances of the accident and causation factors were noted. Data from the NCIS involved a collection of coronial data on deaths reported to the Australian coroner from 2000 onwards and contains details on the police report of death, autopsy reports, toxicology reports and coronial findings. The VEMD results showed that injury was more common among bus passengers than those on either trams or trains, especially when taking account of their relatively lower usage. The most common injuries from these incidents were to the head and face regions and upper and lower limbs. Chest injuries were especially problematic for older travellers: they sustained more multiple injuries especially those likely to be life-threatening than their younger counterparts. Getting on or off the vehicle accounted for almost two-thirds of all injury-causing events and the most common mechanisms involved a slip, trip or fall while getting on and off the vehicle or while onboard or running to catch public transport. Being hit, struck or crushed by another person or an object was also reported. Injuries to older public transport users appeared to be positively correlated with increasing age. The majority of those injured only required out-patient treatment at the participating hospital but this too was somewhat dependent on the participant’s age. The NCIS results further showed that for fatal outcomes to public transport users, self-harm was a predominant cause and older people seemed less involved than younger ones, albeit young-older groups. Males predominated over females and most mechanisms involved external impacts. Trains were heavily over-involved as a vehicle type and there were high proportions of multiple injuries, especially those judged to be intentional. A range of possible interventions to prevent these events and mitigate injury severity was identified and a number of limitations in this study were noted. Several areas requiring further research were identified for future studies, in particular, the need for more definitive in-depth studies of public transport injurious incidents was especially noteworthy

The influence of driver's psychological states on the safety perception of hydrogen electric vehicles

The environmental and sustainable problems caused by automotive exhaust emission have received more attention than ever. Innovative vehicle technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicles, have been developed a long time ago to cope with the problem. Public acceptance of these electric vehicle technologies is critical to their successful replacement of the internal combustion engine vehicles and thus reduce the emissions. Previous researches had shown that the main barriers were the lack of support infrastructures, high vehicle purchase cost and vehicle reliability with respect to safety. However, studies into the public safety perception of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles have still been limited to date. In this paper, a quantitative survey was developed to investigate the public safety concerns of three types of vehicle powertrain: the internal combustion engine, the hybrid electric and the solely electric vehicle. The study indicates the root cause of the low safety perception at present. The survey results also indicate that that driving freedom is nowadays not just a problem of infrastructure only but is gradually becoming a psychological issue in terms of increased driver’s mental stress, and thus, the overall driving safety is affected. Furthermore, this paper states the existence of an evaluation chain to determine the driver’s safety perception. In the end, this paper proposed a comprehensive framework of the negation of driver’s safety concerns regarding the hydrogen-fuelled electric vehicle, based on the results from the survey and a review of psychological effects. This framework intends to explain the perceived safety perception from a wider angle with some in-depth

A preliminary evaluation of passenger airbag effectiveness in Australia

A preliminary case-control study of passenger airbag deployments in frontal crashes (in which a passenger was present) was undertaken. The study was conducted as part of an on-going study of vehicle crash performance and occupant injury at Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC). The results of this preliminary study suggest that the US experience of fatalities caused by interaction of the passenger with the deploying airbag is not shared in Australia. This is probably because the seat-belt use in this study was 100%. These preliminary results reinforce the view that such airbags should be used as supplementary restraint systems. Further studies are planned to monitor the performance of passenger-airbags and to provide more in-depth analyses when more data become available