Status of NHTSA's Rear-End Crash Prevention Research Program

This paper provides an update on two cooperative research projects being conducted under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA's) Rear-End Crash Prevention Program. The first project is the General Motors-Ford Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP) Forward Collision Warning (FCW) work. Since 1995, this project has been aimed at defining and developing pre-competitive enabling elements to facilitate FCW system deployment. The second project is the General Motors-led Automotive Collision Avoidance System Field Operational Test (ACAS FOT), which aims to accelerate the deployment of active safety systems by integrating and field-testing vehicles outfitted with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Forward Collision Warning (FCW) systems. Results from the first CAMP FCW project played an important role in the development of the SAE J2400 Recommended Practice, “Human Factors in Forward Collision Warning Systems: Operating Characteristics and User Interface Requirements”. This paper discusses findings from the second CAMP FCW project, which was focused on evaluating and developing the FCW timing approach and examining drivers’ decision-making and avoidance maneuver behavior in rear-end crash scenarios. The closed-course, test track methodology employed allows safely placing naive drivers in realistic rear-end crash scenarios so that driver behavior can be observed. The human factors experimentation and key results from this project will be discussed in this paper. During the ACAS FOT project, a small fleet of vehicles was built and given to lay drivers for their personal use. Each driver had a vehicle for approximately four weeks, three of which had both the ACC and FCW features enabled. The collected data provided objective information about how the subjects used the system and its impact on their driving behavior. It also includes extensive subjective information collected through questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups. The system design, design and execution of the FOT, and highlights of results are discussed in this paper.

• Record URL:
  • http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-01/esv/esv19/05-0282-O.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Kiefer, Raymond J
  • Salinger, Jeremy
  • Ference, John J
• Conference:
  • 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV)
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2005-6-6 to 2005-6-9
• Publication Date: 2005-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: Proceedings - 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV), Washington, D.C., June 6-9, 2005

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous intelligent cruise control; Behavior; Crash avoidance systems; Field tests; Human factors engineering; Rear end crashes; System design
• Identifier Terms: Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership; U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Uncontrolled Terms: Collision warning systems
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01066407
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 05-0282
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 11 2007 2:04PM