Evaluation of the benefits of vehicle safety technology: The MUNDS study

Abstract

Real-world retrospective evaluation of the safety benefits of new integrated safety technologies is hampered by the lack of sufficient data to assess early reliable benefits. This MUNDS study set out to examine if a-prospective‖ case-control meta-analysis had the potential to provide more rapid and rigorous analyses of vehicle and infrastructure safety improvements. To examine the validity of the approach, an analysis of the effectiveness of ESC using a consistent analytic strategy across 6-European and Australasian databases was undertaken. It was hypothesized that the approach would be valid if the results of the MUNDS analysis were consistent with those published earlier (this would confirm the suitability of the MUNDS approach). The findings confirm the hypothesis and also found stronger and more robust findings across the range of crashtypes, road conditions, vehicle sizes and speed zones than previous. The study recommends that while a number of limitations were identified with the findings that need be addressed in future research, the MUNDS approach nevertheless should be adopted widely for the benefit of all vehicle occupants. Highlights: The study proposes a new and valid-prospective‖ method for conducting case-control meta-analyses of safety technologies to reduce the time taken to confirm their crash effectiveness.

Realised safety impacts of electronic stability control in Finland

“…The main data on ESC as standard equipment in passenger cars was collected from a survey sent to importers of 15 car brands covering around 90% of the car fleet in Finland at the end of 2013 [19]. However, the resulting data covered only ten car brands, requiring complementary information from a number of sources including Fildes et al [20], Euro new car assessment programme and records from car brochures and used passenger cars. Since some data sources were less reliable, the data was classified in three categories: (i) ESC as standard equipment, (ii) no documented information available and (iii) ESC not as standard equipment.…”

Early adopters of emergency braking and speed alert

“…The main data on ESC as standard equipment in passenger cars was collected from a survey sent to importers of 15 car brands covering around 90% of the car fleet in Finland at the end of 2013. However, the resulting data covered only ten car brands, requiring complementary information from a number of sources including Fildes et al (2013), the Euro new car assessment programme, and records from car brochures and used passenger cars. Since some data sources were less reliable, the data was classified in three categories: (i) ESC as standard equipment, (ii) no documented information available, and (iii) ESC not as standard equipment.…”

Evaluation of the Accuracy of ADAS Module Readings Based on an Analysis of the Transient Supply Current and Neural Network Application

“…Consequently, a need to perform research, experiments and full-scale testing in order to validate these novel technologies and to evaluate whether vehicles equipped with such systems can safely operate on public roads and whether the technology itself performs according to specifications has been observed [2]. Carrying out such advanced assessments is not only dictated by the evolving complexity of ADAS, but also by growing requirements of consumers and governmental regulations, which push for higher safety [3] and lower costs [4]. Sensors such as RADARs, LIDARs or cameras play key roles in automotive applications but are vulnerable to environmental conditions and damage to internal circuitry [5], [6].…”