Safety is a topic of great interest in the land transport field: the number of injured and deaths in accidents every year is very high with a huge cost for the society. For road transport, vehicle manufacturers and automotive suppliers are doing their best to improve the passive and active safety of vehicles and then to reduce the effects of road accidents. But now technologies are mature for the introduction of a completely new type of functionality: the Preventive Safety. The objective is to reduce the probability that an accident happens rather than to minimise the damages and the people injuries. The benefits for the user and for society are clear and the enormous money saving could justify research efforts bigger than what are really being carried out. It is therefore clear that car manufacturers together with automotive suppliers have to investigate the possible synergies of the mentioned safety concepts and means in order to optimise the number of sensors within the vehicle, costs and their benefits at functional level. The actual approach of the research in this field is leading up to now to the development of specific sensors for each safety approach. In the future it will be necessary, as well as reasonable, to have within the car same sensors devoted to many applications. A first step towards this concept is possible through a new sensorial system platform (a sort of second generation sensorial system) and new on board network. The approach will raise several problems especially from the responsibilities point of view, and probably will require new competencies both at car manufacturers and suppliers level.
Samenvatting