Can Europe cut road deaths in half by next year?

EL SEGUNDO, USA: The European Union (EU) and the European Commission (EC) have adopted the admirable goal of cutting the number of deaths on the region’s roads seen in 2001 in half by 2010.

But despite Europe’s aggressive initiatives that include the use of promising Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS), this lofty goal is unlikely to hit its target, according to iSuppli Corp.

“The European Union in 2001 experienced 1,300,000 accidents, resulting in 1,700,000 injuries and 40,000 deaths,” observed Jeremy Carlson, researcher for ADAS and EMEA automotive at iSuppli. “Europe’s efforts up to this point have resulted in a 27 percent decrease in road deaths in 2008, which is certainly a noteworthy achievement. However, given the drawn-out EU decision process, the lengthy automotive product life cycle, and the fact that the only ADAS safety technology currently mandated is Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Europe is unlikely to reach this target.”

The EU and the EC have been active in proposing new initiatives to help accomplish its goal. Involving every entity from national governments to public authorities and private enterprises, the EC sought to bring together the individual stakeholders in order to share ideas and best practices, and to instill a sense of shared responsibility in this life-saving goal.

Many of these initiatives and discussions involve ADAS technologies, which include ultrasonic and camera park-assist, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and blind-spot detection systems.

European road safety charter
First among these initiatives is the European Road Safety Charter. The charter is the largest existing road safety platform, encompassing all 27 EU member states and including more than 1,100 public authorities and private entities as signatories. The charter invites public and private organizations to specifically and actively contribute to the realization of Europe’s auto safety goal.

Among the Charter’s efforts is encouraging the adoption of proven ADAS safety technologies.

Unfortunately, many safety technologies such as adaptive cruise control and blind-spot detection systems have not had the luxury of time and widespread availability to sufficiently prove they can reduce accidents or deaths.

As a result, many of these new ADAS solutions are relegated to research while the tried-and-true technologies such as seat belts and airbags find their way to the legislative front.

Currently, the European Road Safety Charter is pursuing a requirement for seat-belt reminders in passenger vehicles and now requires that all heavy goods vehicles be equipped with blind-spot mirrors on the passenger side to help protect bikers and pedestrians. The requirement of these side-object detection systems by the EC acknowledges the importance of blind-spot safety and could lead to the consideration of radar- and camera-based detection and recognition systems in the future.

The EC also has nominated driver monitoring, collision avoidance and mitigation, pedestrian protection, and visibility systems such as night vision as potential candidates for worthwhile research.

Roads, cars get smart
The Charter and other European initiatives involve the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The proposals could also lead to more navigation-enabled ADAS systems that benefit from mindfully-designed roadways.

Furthermore, the EC’s Intelligent Car Initiative formed in February 2006 was conceived to advance the use of intelligent technologies in automobiles to help make them smarter, safer and cleaner. Naturally, this initiative works side by side with the Charter to help achieve Europe’s goal, although it was not designed specifically for that purpose.

The Intelligent Car Initiative includes the eSafety Forum, which aims to accelerate the development and deployment of intelligent information and communication technologies by building consensus among industry stakeholders.

The latest research agenda from the eSafety Forum included insight into ADAS technologies, including collision avoidance. As a directive for future research and development, the results indicate that current collision mitigation systems should evolve into full-collision-avoidance systems with a focus on reducing costs for deployment in small- and medium-sized cars, although it provides no specific action to reach that goal.