Progress to deployment of vehicle to vehicles communication and crash avoidance to help drivers avoid or reduce the severity of 80 percent of unimpaired vehicle crashes

On Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it “could be at the verge” of a breakthrough to allow vehicles to communicate with each other and “transform the nation’s surface transportation safety, mobility and environmental performance.”

The NHTSA has just completed a yearlong test in Ann Arbor, Mich., with 3,000 cars, trucks, and buses connected by Wi-Fi to help avoid crashes and improve traffic flow.

The NTSB recommended that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “develop minimum performance standards for connected vehicle technology.”

With those standards in place, the NHTSA should then require the technology to be installed on all newly manufactured highway vehicles, the NTSB said.

Such technology could help drivers avoid or reduce the severity of 80 percent of unimpaired vehicle crashes, NHTSA said.

Light Vehicle Crash Avoidance Needs and Countermeasure Profiles for Safety Applications Based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications

This report identifies crash avoidance needs and countermeasure functional requirements for five pre-crash scenario groups of multiple-vehicle crashesthat involve at least one light vehicle. The five groups include rear-end, lane change, opposite direction, left-turn-across-path/opposite direction (LTAP/OD), and junction crossing pre-crash scenarios. The last group encompasses straight crossing paths, turning left or right across the path or into the path of another vehicle approaching the junction from a perpendicular left or right direction. Overall, the five pre-crash scenario groups contribute to about 1,259,000 functional years lost and 180 billion dollars in comprehensive costs annually based on police-reported crashes involving at least one person with a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) level of one or more.

The following is a brief description of five of these related safety applications that were selected for a
test bed in the VSC-A project:

• Emergency Electronic Brake Light (EEBL): This application enables a host vehicle to broadcast a self-generated emergency brake event to surrounding remote vehicles. Upon receiving such event information, the remote vehicle determines the relevance of the event and provides a warning to the driver if appropriate.

• Forward Collision Warning (FCW): This application warns the driver of the host vehicle in case of an impending rear-end collision with a remote vehicle ahead in traffic in the same lane and direction of travel.

• Intersection Movement Assist (IMA): This application warns the driver of a host vehicle when it is not safe to enter an intersection due to high collision probability with other remote vehicles at stop sign controlled and uncontrolled intersections.

• Blind Spot Warning (BSW) + Lane Change Warning (LCW): This application warns the driver of the host vehicle during a lane change attempt if the blind spot zone into which the host vehicle intends to switch is, or will soon be, occupied by another vehicle traveling in the same direction. The application also provides the driver of the host vehicle with advisory information that a vehicle in an adjacent lane is positioned in the blind spot zone when a lane change is not being attempted.

• Do Not Pass Warning (DNPW): This application warns the driver of the host vehicle during a passing maneuver attempt when a slower moving vehicle, ahead and in the same lane, cannot be safely passed using a passing zone that is occupied by vehicles in the opposite direction of travel. The application also provides the driver of the host vehicle with advisory information that the passing zone is occupied when a passing maneuver is not being attempted.

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