This chapter describes actual driver safety needs, based on an analysis of French road accidents, and examines which PROMETHEUS functions could satisfy these needs and thus reduce accidents. Drivers can be helped by providing certain functions in the perception-decision-action loop common to all human operators. The driver needs include: (1) knowledge of his own state of attention; (2) knowledge of vehicle defects; (3) various types of obstacle detection; (4) various types of estimation and assessment; (5) various types of prediction; and (6) vehicle control aids. The PROMETHEUS programme is developing 23 functions to provide these needs of which 14 are directly linked to safety. These include functions such as obstacle detection, vision enhancement, intelligent cruise control, vehicle control and driver attention monitoring. The following hypotheses were proposed: (1) a device will be developed for each function; (2) drivers will use each device fully; (3) drivers will not use this increased safety to take additional risks. Using these hypotheses, an attempt was made to determine which accidents could have been avoided by implementing the 14 functions. It was found that about 50% of all road accidents, 67% of urban accidents, and 22% of rural accidents could be avoided, using these functions. The proportions of accidents that could be prevented varied considerably between the nine different types of accidents studied. An important question is whether all or only some new vehicles will be equipped with devices to implement the functions.
Abstract