Safety: Can technology DO everything?

 

Road safety: a worldwide challenge

Despite real inroads made in recent years by advanced countries, road safety remains a major challenge. Within the confines of the European Union, nearly 1.4 million accidents occur annually, killing 40,000 people. In 2001, the EU set a goal to halve the number of fatal accidents by 2010. Due to expanding frontiers and to the integration of Eastern European countries, where automobile safety policies have been implemented much more recently, that objective will not be met on time.

Even among the best performing countries there is no question of lowering the guard. For example in France, since 2002, a package of preventive and repressive measures focusing on speeding has enabled a 40% reduction in the number of road fatalities in the last five years. An accident-free future, however, still seems far away. There are stubborn black spots that continue to resist treatment: injuries and the number of injured were actually on the rise in 2007 and zero headway was made in the protection of vulnerable pedestrians or motorbike users. Even more appalling, drunk driving has not budged in 10 years, even though it is implicated in more than 16% of all fatal accidents.

At the global level, the figures are more even more alarming. Around the world, auto accidents claim 1, 200, 000 lives and injure 50 million people yearly (UN statistics). The gap is broadening between the "unsafe road” levels of advanced countries and those of poor or emerging economies. A World Bank report predicts the biggest increase in road accidents in coming years for fast-developing Southeast Asian countries. The main reason: rapid automobile growth, combined with inadequate infrastructure and poor driving behaviour. In China, slotted to become the world’s number one auto market by 2010, road fatalities are the highest, with more than
81, 600 fatal accidents in 2007. And India, where car sales are progressing very rapidly, is experiencing one of the highest accident rates in the world.

From the seatbelt to ABS: effective technologies

Technology stands out as an efficient and durable means of improving automobile safety. It can have an impact on vehicles and road infrastructure, as well as on driver behaviour. The EU is thus firmly committed to promoting the development and the deployment of intelligent systems under the auspices of its e-safety program, launched in 2002. The program’s first concrete applications include the progressive sharing by all member states of a single emergency call number, 112. By an embedded, automatic emergency call system, eCall will be standard equipment of all new EU-licensed vehicles and is expected to save 2,500 lives per year.

In terms of the vehicle itself, both automakers and equipment manufacturers alike have developed many innovative technologies, which have already demonstrated their effectiveness. Beginning with the seatbelt, continuous progress has been made in the protection of passengers who have accidents (systems referred to as “passive safety”). New equipment (air bags, for example), more flexible materials and the strategic positioning of vehicle components all contribute to the protection of both passengers and pedestrians. Moreover, today’s auto industry has introduced cars capable of correcting potentially dangerous situations to avoid accidents, with “active safety” systems. These include road handling and emergency braking assistance tools. Antilock Braking Systems (ABS) and the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) are now standard equipment on most new cars. In the future these systems will include night vision enhancers, cameras and radars to see all around the vehicle, signpost recognition systems and vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

Changing driver behaviour

Embedded technological solutions will play an increasingly important role in modifying driver behaviour, responsible for 80% of all automobile accidents. There are vehicles today which are already equipped to “correct” speeding (with speed inhibitors) and prevent drunk driving (with alcohol breath tests that block the ignition), which are major causes of auto accidents. Tomorrow, cars will also be able to detect drowsiness and warn the motorist, or even activate the brakes… Above all, with the wide diffusion of GPS systems and the future implementation (2013) of Galileo, the European satellite, ever more “intelligent” vehicles will be able to regulate auto speed according to location, and adapt to traffic conditions and to the conduct of other vehicles (slowing down, passing…).

However, as useful as these technologies of today and tomorrow may be, their deployment is challenged on several fronts. Beyond the technical and legal hurdles inherent to their development, the cost of these systems is the biggest obstacle cited by motorists. Today, only luxury vehicles are equipped with these latest technologies. Large-scale industrialization is the only way to make them accessible to all.

The key question is whether customers will accept and adopt these technologies. An important element is the necessity of reassuring potential users with regard to the complexity and the reliability of electronic systems; calming fears of losing control of this type of vehicle, or concerns over personal freedom… In parallel to these safety-oriented solutions, drivers will be offered more and more embedded technologies for their comfort, such as navigation aids and other mobile media which bring with them the haunting possibility that the “all-tech” vehicle will lead to reckless behaviour.