FCW And AEB Reduce Front-To-Rear Crashes By 50 Per Cent: US Survey

A survey by US-based Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS) has revealed that vehicles equipped with forward collision warning (FCW) and automatic emergency braking (AEB) reduced front-to-rear crashes by around 50 per cent. Additionally, AEB performed well in all weather and lighting conditions. The study also showed vehicles equipped with active intervention technologies that help drivers stay in their lane, such as lane keeping assistance (LKA) and lane centring assistance (LCA), reduced single-vehicle crashes that lead to serious injury. “These emerging technologies can substantially reduce the number of crashes and improve safety outcomes,” said Tim Czapp, Industry Co-Chair of the PARTS Governance Board and a senior manager at Stellantis. “Demonstrating industry’s proactive commitment, AEB is approaching standard deployment and with real-world effectiveness, is helping mitigate injuries and lives lost.” The research, which PARTS said was the largest government-vehicle manufacturer study about the real-world effectiveness of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) in passenger vehicles, assessed the effectiveness of six ADAS features: FCW, AEB, pedestrian AEB, lane departure warning, LKA, and LCA. Participating vehicle manufacturers provided vehicle equipment data for 47 million 2015 to 2020 model year passenger vehicles. The data was paired with 12 million police-reported crashes from 13 states provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). “A crucial part of the safe system approach is making vehicles safer by leveraging innovation to prevent crashes and save lives on our nation’s roads,” said Ann Carlson, Acting Administrator at NHTSA. “Public-private partnerships are yet another tool to help accelerate the development and adoption of life-saving technology to protect all road users.” Formed in 2018 and operated by not-for-profit MITRE Corporation, PARTS is a voluntary partnership among vehicle manufacturers and the US Department of Transportation to advance traffic safety through collaborative analysis of the real-world effectiveness of safety technologies. The vehicle manufacturers participating in PARTS at the time of the study included Honda, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Stellantis, Subaru, and Toyota. Ford has since joined the partnership and future iterations of ADAS effectiveness research will incorporate Ford models, allowing PARTS to expand its dataset to study increasingly nuanced research questions.