eSafety Compendium

Lane supportLane keeping, lane departure warning and blind spot detection could have a large impacton road safety. A system performing these functions is commercially available for trucks.These systems were also developed and tested in FP4 projects (IN-ARTE and LACOS)they exist as prototypes for cars.Safe followingACC is already in the market, although only in top-of-the-range cars. It is expected thatACC will be made available in more and more of the new cars, when the manufacturingcosts, especially the sensor technology gets cheaper.Pedestrian protectionTechnologies for pedestrian protection, like PROTECTOR or SAVE-U are not matureyet. Follow-up of the progress in developing and deploying measures to improvepedestrian protection included in the indicative list in the industry commitment onpedestrian protection 17 is required.Improved visionSystems for artificial vision or improved vision already exist but they are expensive.Implementation of intelligent lighting systems should be supported, although they areanyway coming into the market little by little (always in the top-of-the-range vehiclesfirst).Driver monitoringRTD projects are working on it and first results are promising but technologies andsystems are not mature for the moment.Intersection safetyVery little exists for in-vehicle systems, the problem could be better and faster solvedwith systems based on the infrastructure. A great deal could be done by improvinginfrastructure: intersection design and construction. These improvements are essentialfor achieving benefits from intelligent integrated road safety systems.Vehicle dynamicsElectronic Stability Programme (ESP) is in the market and has a significant impact onbetter vehicle stability especially in avoiding skidding and while breaking. Theimplementation of ESP in all cars could be promoted.Work on vehicle dynamics through the x-by-wire is very interesting and looks verypromising but solutions are not yet available for full drive-by-wire.Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication17 COM(2001) 389 final, 11.07.2001 – Communication from the Commission to the Council andEuropean Parliament – Pedestrian protection: Commitment by the European automobile industryPage 27 of 490