The team from Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software at University of Limerick (UL) and Motion-S, Luxembourg also found Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) to be the most impactful technology, reducing three out of the four most frequent accident categories: intersection (28 per cent), rear-end (27.7 per cent), and pedestrian accidents (28.4 per cent).
Based on publicly-available road safety reports from the UK for 2019, the research team estimates that a full deployment of ADAS would reduce accident frequency in the UK by 23.8 per cent, representing an annual decrease of 18,925 accidents.
In a statement, Dr Barry Sheehan of Lero at UL said: “Our research suggests that introducing ADAS across all vehicles would lower the number of road crashes. Furthermore, accidents happening in the two most frequent contexts can be reduced by 29 per cent. That means a reduction of 7,020 accidents on urban roads with clear weather and daylight conditions and 3,472 on rural roads with clear weather and daylight conditions.”
In the UK and the EU, vehicles with ADAS, including Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), are becoming more common. Although these systems provide considerable societal benefits, this research, published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives (TRIP), has revealed their potential impact on accident numbers across various driving contexts.
Lead author Leandro Masello, Data Scientist at Motion-S and PhD Candidate at the Emerging Risk Group, UL, said that although ADAS provides considerable road safety benefits, its performance is often constrained by challenging conditions, like adverse weather.
“The driving environment affects vehicle dynamics and sensor capabilities. A system that suddenly brakes to avoid a crash will perform better in dry weather conditions than in adverse conditions like heavy rain and ice, which reduce tyre traction and can cause the vehicle to skid.
“Similarly, inclement weather also impairs the sensors’ ability to perceive the environment accurately. For example, a snowstorm could obstruct the camera vision system or cover lane boundaries,” said Masello.
The research has been funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) under their academic-industrial partnership programme.
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