Path to safer driving

has unveiled automotive path prediction technology, a system developed under the

research project to make driving safer.

PReVENT is a European car industry project, co-funded by the EU to develop preventative and active road safety features for cars.

Path prediction, developed for frequently-driven routes, uses digital data from navigation systems — even when they are not being used — to support active safety features such as adaptive headlamps.

'If you use a navigation system, it is easy to predict the car's path,' said the project's lead engineer, Aria Etemad.

'But most of the time, people don't use it on regular journeys. The system uses historic data to be able to predict the path the car will take.'

With stored memory of numerous journeys, safety features can be applied earlier: adaptive headlamps will be able to illuminate bends sooner because they are not just relying on the steering angle; adaptive cruise control can take into account likely changes in speed; and lane control will remain working in tunnels, using data from digital maps and cameras.