The objective of this study was to estimate the effect on police-reported crash and injury rates of Volvo’s City Safety system, which brakes autonomously at speeds up to 19 mph when a front-to-rear collision is imminent. Poisson regression was used to compare police-reported crash involvement rates per insured vehicle year in 27 U.S. states during 2010-2014 between Volvo 2011-2012 model S60 and 2010- 2012 model XC60 vehicles with standard City Safety and other luxury midsize SUVs and cars without the system, respectively, controlling for other factors affecting crash risk. City Safety reduced rates of rear-end striking crash involvements by 41%, rear-end striking crash involvements with injuries by 47%, and rear-end striking crash involvements with third-party injuries by 48%. Additionally, City Safety was associated with reductions of 14% in crash involvement rates, 13% in multi-vehicle crash involvement rates, 12% in injury crash involvement rates, and 8% in third-party injury crash involvement rates. Reductions in rates of all rear-end striking crash involvements, those with injures, and those with third-party injuries were largest at speed limits of 40-45 mph (54%, 65%, and 66%, respectively), followed by speed limits of 35 mph or less (39%, 43%, and 49%, respectively) and of 50 mph or greater (25%, 30%, and 27%, respectively). City Safety appears to be highly effective at reducing rear-end crashes and associated injuries reported to police, even on roadways with speed limits higher than the system’s operating range. Nearly one-third of all police-reported crashes are rear-end crashes. If all vehicles on the road in 2013 had been equipped with low-speed AEB that performed similarly to City Safety, approximately 750,000 police-reported rear-end crashes and 350,000 injuries in such crashes could have been prevented that year. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting