COLLISION AVOIDANCE TECHNOLOGIES        

                                                                                                  Printer-friendly version

What Is It?

These technologies use sensors on-board vehicles and (less often) embedded in the infrastructure, to monitor vehicle movements and, in some instances, the driver's behavior and process that information and either

• modify the vehicle's operation directly as needed to avoid dangerous situations,
• issue warnings to the driver to take corrective action,
• make adjustment to safety devices such as airbags, seatbelts, suspensions, steering systems and brakes in anticipation of a collision, or some combination of those measures.

Many of the technologies grew out of early research into automated vehicles. Today, the most commonly deployed systems are offered by private-sector manufacturers and do not rely very heavily on public sector support or spending.

Certain types of collisions, however, are more amenable to being prevented or minimized by technologies that involve more public investment, or contribute such a significant burden to the accident rate as to justify additional research involving systems with larger public investments. For example, lane departures (resulting in lateral collisions) and intersection crashes are major components of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research program for collision avoidance and are addressed separately in this section (see sidebar).

Other types of collision avoidance technologies lend themselves more readily to applications that are not directly related to safety. For example, longitudinal collision avoidance is being studied for use in automated precision docking for buses, freight handling at ports, and semi-automated systems to guide parallel parking maneuvers.

• Collision avoidance technologies are largely being offered by original equipment manufacturers as autonomous packages.
• Some systems could be helpful in other applications, such as bus rapid transit or electronic "tow-bars" for heavy-duty trucks on dedicated truckways.

Benefits

• They can save lives and reduce property losses and congestion associated with crashes.
• By allowing closer operation of vehicles, they could increase capacity of roadways and reduce fuel consumption.

Costs

• Most costs are borne by manufacturers and passed on to consumers.

Implementation Challenges

• Consumer resistance to higher costs for new cars.
• Standardization to enable vehicle-to-vehicle systems.
• Driver over-reliance on systems.
• Driver annoyance at false alarms.

• In the U.S., certain elements of collision avoidance and warning systems are starting to be available, but mainly on higher-priced car models.
• Japan is farthest along in deploying autonomous, vehicle-only systems, with Europe not far behind. Among the systems are "stop-and-go" adaptive cruise control and electronic tow-bars.

Author: Terri O'Connor

April 2004

Last updated January 30, 2007