Tradeoffs in the Evaluation of Light Vehicle Pre-Collision Systems

Abstract

Pre-collision systems (PCS) use forward-looking sensors to detect the location and motion of vehicles ahead and provide a sequence of actions to help the driver either avoid striking the rear-end of another vehicle or mitigate the severity of the crash. The actions include driver alerts, amplification of driver braking as distance decreases (dynamic brake support, DBS), and automatic braking if the driver has not acted or has not acted sufficiently (crash imminent braking, CIB). Recent efforts by various organizations have sought to define PCS objective test procedures and test equipment in support of consumer information programs and potential certification. This paper presents results and insights from conducting DBS and CIB tests on two production vehicles sold in the US. Eleven scenarios are used to assess the systems' performance. The two systems' performance shows that commercial systems can be quite different. Also demonstrated is the experience with test equipment, including a towable target that has been designed for resiliency and radar signature, a braking robot, and bumper guard. While improvements continue in evaluation procedures, the community may still be a distance away from an ability to test these systems with realistic surrogate targets in speed conditions similar to those that lead to serious injury and fatalities. Recommendations are offered to help improve PCS evaluation. Language: en