This report presents a literature survey on in-vehicle safety devices. The study was split into two parts, from which the first part was focussed on restraint systems and the second on intelligent vehicle systems. This study aimed to give an overview of potentials for safety of current technologies available and trends in in-vehicle safety devices. The literature survey showed that the effectiveness of wearing seat belts in reducing injury risk (up to 60%) is much higher than effectiveness of airbags only. Effectiveness of the seat belts in combination with airbags is 10-20% higher than effectiveness of only belts. Only very limited information on effectiveness of side- and curtain airbags was available. New seat concepts were shown to claim a reduction of Whiplash injury risk and also a reduction of fatality risk. Side effects of restraints systems were described, including the risks for out-of-position occupants. Current trends indicated the increasing importance of the use of adaptive systems, in which occupant characteristics can be taken into account to reach optimal restraint performance. These adaptive systems include various sensors. Another important trend is to cover safety aspects for all occupants (front and rear occupants) and in all accident configurations, including multiple impacts. Intelligent Vehicle Systems (IVS) can be used for comfort or/and for Safety. IVS for Safety were mentioned in this report as IVSS. Intelligence is already introduced in nowadays cars like ABS (Anti locking Brake System) and more recently ESP (Electronic Stability Program). Estimations from in depth accidents analysis showed that ESP could have reduced the likelihood or avoided the accident in 18% of all injury accidents and in 34% of fatal accidents. The new challenge is to introduce remote sensing for avoiding or mitigating a crash. ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) is an example of this technology, other systems will follow. An overview on IVS and more details on IVSS was provided in this literature survey including the estimated potential of the systems to increase vehicle safety. This potential is obtained mainly from simulation and experts opinions and the obtained numbers have to be taken cautiously. It is agreed that IVSS tackle the first cause of accidents, which is driver errors. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting