Acceptability of rider assistive systems for powered two-wheelers

This paper proposes an overview of achievements in the safety benefits (lives extended and injuries mitigated) provided by current or close-to-market vehicle technologies. It also proposes to review some of the research and developments in future vehicle safety such as connected vehicles and automated driving. It finally discusses expected safety benefits, and potentials as well as barriers to a large dissemination of these current and future technology-based traffic safety measures. As they are mostly foreseen in high income countries in the middle term, another type of revolution is needed in low and middle income countries for before these technologies can be put onto all global markets at a reasonable cost and contribute to the safety benefits of all road users. Frugal safety, coming from the frugal engineering concept, would be the recommended way to enable and accelerate this deployment. As for vehicle safety technologies already on the market, they have proven to be highly effective in mitigating vehicle occupant injuries, and injuries of vulnerable road users. Secondary safety devices and basic driver assistance systems have been largely evaluated and the effectiveness of seat belts, load limiters, pretensioners, airbags, car structure, electronic stability control (ESC), emergency brake assist (EBA) and other such devices have been examined. Available results show that, for example, if all cars were Euro NCAP five stars and fitted with EBA and ESC, compared to four stars without ESC and EBA, injury accidents would be reduced by 47%, all injuries would be mitigated by 68% and severe + fatal injuries by 70% (Page et al. in 53th AAAM conference, Baltimore, 2009). Unlike secondary safety systems, ESC, ultrasonic park assist, cornering lights and manual speed limiters, most of the primary safety systems or advanced assistance systems (such as blind spot detection, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, automated cruise control, night vision and high speed AEB) are not, or just poorly, deployed on the market. There are a few reasons for this. First, their maturity and their capacity to work well without too many counter effects are recent, technological barriers have been strong for a long time. They were launched first in luxury cars in the USA, Japan and Western Europe in the mid-2000s and democratization has started just a few years back. Secondly, these features are costly, in terms of unit price and also in terms of investment; and their deployment demands progress in cost reduction. Thirdly, their expected safety benefits are, to a certain extent, not really known. If it is now epidemiologically demonstrated that secondary safety features bring safety, as well as ESC, the positive effectiveness of not yet largely deployed primary safety devices is only estimated and not yet proven, except for some of them like low speed automatic emergency braking (AEB). Studies about effectiveness of these devices take into account the potential in saving lives of generic functions, but a lot is still unknown about the real-world usage and acceptance by drivers and pedestrians of these applications. As there are many variants of these features, and especially concerning the mode of restitution to the driver of the information, the alert, or the warnings, the genuine efficiency of each variant is still a mystery. Of course, in-house studies by suppliers and car manufacturers anticipate positive acceptance by drivers and have identified and countered possible counter effects. Of course, current research is evaluating their potential to safety and in covering real-world driver needs, but a large field of research is still open for their safety assessment in real-life. Anyhow, the introduction of vehicle safety technologies is supposed to bring safety for a variety of road users and a variety of crash configurations. Of course, they will first be disseminated in high income countries but they will also be further disseminated, expectedly quickly, in the rest of the world under the pressure of customer demand, competition between vehicle makers as well as pressure from all kinds of New Car Assessment Programs, NCAP’s (Latin NCAP in South America, Bharat NCAP in India, Asian NCAP in Asia, etc.), and more generally from Global NCAP, which federates NCAP’s all over the world. This will be a first step in the globalization of existing or close-to-development vehicle safety technologies. Now, further on, emerging (more complex) technologies such as connectivity (vehicle-to-X communications) and automated driving will bring additional opportunities to tackle road crashes by adding safety applications not yet covered by passive safety or traditional (advanced) assistance systems. Actually connected technologies for safety and driving assistance systems in the current world of stand-alone technologies have three additional values:

<div>The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the fatality risk of powered two-wheeler (PTW) riders across different impact orientations while controlling for different opponent vehicle (OV) types. For the crash configurations with higher fatality rate, the secondary objective was to create an initial speed–fatality prediction model specific to the United States. Data from the NHTSA Crash Reporting Sampling System and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System from 2017 to 2020 was used to estimate the odds of the different possible vehicle combinations and orientations in PTW–OV crashes. Binary logistic regression was then used to model the speed–fatality risk relationship for the configurations with the highest fatality odds. Results showed that collisions with heavy trucks were more likely to be fatal for PTW riders than those with other OV types. Additionally, the most dangerous impact orientations were found to be those where the PTW impacted the OVs front or sides, with fatality odds, respectively, four and five times higher than when the OV rear-end was impacted. The high variability in the odds of different crash configurations suggests the importance of considering the impact orientation factor in future injury prediction models. The speed–fatality prediction models developed for head-on and side crashes could provide an initial tool to evaluate the effectiveness of advanced rider assistance systems and other safety countermeasures in the United States, particularly those that result in speed reductions.</div>

Problem statement: The rapid development of Driver Assistance System (DAS) provides drivers with radically enhanced information and functionality. The nature of the current DAS requires a complex human-machine interaction which is distracting and may increase the risk of road accidents. The interaction between the driver and DAS should aid the driving process without interfering with safety and ease of vehicle operation. Speech based interaction mechanisms employed are not sufficiently robust to deal with the distraction and noise present in the interior environment of the vehicle. Approach: Thus, suitable hybrid earcon/auditory icon design principles for DAS are developed. These interfaces are investigated in driving simulators in-order to test their durability and robustness. Several evaluation parameters will be applied. This will ensure the driving-related information from the DAS was delivered to the driver without affecting the overall driving process. Results: This study produces auditory design principles for information mapping (visual into nonspeech based interaction) and presentation framework was produced. It outlines representation architecture that enables concurrent auditory driving related information to be transmitted from four different sources in the vehicle’s interior environment. It outlines a set of hybrid design principles that integrates auditory icons with earcons to map and present real-time driving related data from a visual to a non-speech auditory interface. Conclusion/Recommendations: The major contribution of this research project takes a genuine approach by considering the entire DAS (safety, navigation and entertainment subsystem). It proposes hybrid representation strategy based on the cognitive availability of the driver and cognitive workload. It was a significant discovery that aid future DAS auditory interaction design.

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">New challenges and complexities are continuously increasing in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) development (e.g. active safety, driver assistant and autonomous vehicle systems). Therefore, the health management of ADAS’ components needs special improvements. Since software contribution in ADAS’ development is increasing significantly, remote diagnosis and maintenance for ADAS become more important. Furthermore, it is highly recommended to predict the remaining useful life (RUL) for the prognosis of ADAS’ safety critical components; e.g. (Ultrasonic, Cameras, Radar, LIDAR). This paper presents a remote diagnosis, maintenance and prognosis (RDMP) framework for ADAS, which can be used during development phase and mainly after production. An overview of RDMP framework’s elements is explained to demonstrate how/when this framework is connected to database servers and remote analysis servers. Moreover, Sensors fusion is used in RDMP to detect some sensor failures and even to predict their RUL. Additionally, some well-known machine learning algorithms (MLA) are used to predict RUL of ADAS’ components, and different types of input attributes to these MLA are proposed for some basic ADAS’ components. MLA use training data set, which shall be constructed ideally from actual records reported remotely by RDMP (Prognosis Analysis and Self-Learning System). However, initial dataset before production of the vehicle can be created from ADAS laboratory tests (e.g. Assessments on test tracks), ADAS simulation and theoretical analytical methods. Also, experiments of using the proposed RDMP in some ADAS’ components (Sensor fusion and Braking system as ADAS actuator) are presented. Summary, conclusion with proven results and future work are explained.</div></div>

This paper outlines the use of two complementary software packages that together provide the ability to cover all critical aspects of advanced driver assistance (ADA) system design. One of the software packages (PreScan) focuses on the design of the sensing and control systems, as well as the evaluation for a wide range of traffic and weather scenarios. The other software package (ASM) takes care of the detailed vehicle dynamics and vehicle control. By means of a real-world application example of a Lane Keeping Assistance system, the combined use of these software packages to design and evaluate ADA systems is demonstrated. KeywordsActive safetyADA systemsSensorsVehicle dynamicsSimulation

Several publications have shown that it is beneficial to design a driver assistance system using a shared control structure. For the steering task this structure can be realized with a setup in which driver and automation can apply a torque on the steering wheel in parallel. Thereby both, driver and assistance system, interact with the vehicle and each other over the haptical channel. In the system the driver is given and cannot be changed. The question is how to design the assistance system controller as an ideal complement to the driver. In this paper a formal design concept is applied to this problem which utilizes the fact that adding a controller to the overall system has to lead to a Nash equilibrium. Remaining degrees of freedom are used to optimize the designed controller with respect to a global objective function that specifies overall system performance. We refer the concept as "cooperative shared control design". For the concept driver and vehicle are modeled as a differential game. We show systematically that this concept can be used to determine the optimal assistance system if the driver characteristics are known. Simulations prove the applicability of this concept.

Advanced driver assistance system includes various factors and components for passengers safety and riding comfort. Research on this driver assistance system is recently becoming one of the most important and crucial theme in the matter of intelligent transportation system (ITS). In this context, the proposed paper focuses on the design of automatic speed assistance system for diverse road conditions. For this purpose, the existing braking mechanism is considered for different applications. The proposed automatic speed assistance system is derived from antilock braking system (ABS) and automatic steering assistance system. Primarily the road condition introduces about the idea of road curvature model, altitude profile and the wheel slip-coefficient of friction characteristics. For designing, a brassy and trashy way is adapted to develop the speed assistance control system. The simulation model is formulated in measurement and automation giant, LabVIEW, which is a very easiest and modern approach to acquire, monitor and process the data. After all the practical application of this incredible software in the manufacturing field of automobiles yields a rapid control prototyping, real time simulation, in vehicle data logging and control and online noise, vibration and harshness testing.

The anticipatory advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) developed at the Institute of Ergonomics at the TU München assists to reduce the individual fuel consumption of each driver by anticipating earlier. The goal is to achieve improvements in as many road situations as possible. The paper gives an overview on the different options to support the driver to reduce its fuel consumption. It also discusses the possibilities of an extension of anticipation to support the driver in eco-driving. Related work shows that anticipatory advanced driver assistance systems help to save fuel, but they focus on the general potentials of the system. The presented study in this paper, however, deals with the question of the impact of different road traffic situations on an anticipatory driver assistance system. Different traffic scenarios were chosen and varied in its complexity to evaluate the impact of the complexity of different driving situations on an anticipatory ADAS. A driving simulator study was conducted with 27 participants. The results showed that the fuel consumption is reduced with the assistant system due to earlier and better reaction but that there is no influence of the complexity of a situation on that. The influence of the situation on the driver in his use of the ADAS can be shown by his visual behavior. The percentage of the gaze time on the human machine interface (HMI) on the system is significantly reduced in the more complex situations.

The second decade of the 21st century saw the introduction of vehicles equipped with various driver assistance systems. However, the producers' plans go much further. In January 2023, Mercedes-Benz's DRIVE PILOT system was approved for use on public roads in Nevada (United States) as the first and so far only SAE Level 3 series-production solution. Despite increasing automation, the human factor remains important for the safety and efficiency of road transport. In the coming years, and possibly decades, this will mainly be due to the co-existence of vehicles with varying degrees of automation and necessary driver-vehicle interactions in cases where an automated driving system crosses the boundaries of the operational design domain. The latest research reveals the limitations of driving assistance systems, pointing not only to the need for changes in the technological domain but also to the need to pay more attention to the psychological aspects of using assistance systems in cognitive and behavioral areas. Therefore, an additional element of automation implementation should be considered, which is driver training focused on modern technological solutions. Properly arranged and conducted training can be treated as an additional factor facilitating the implementation of automated mobility. The article describes the methods of assessing the effectiveness of training in terms of familiarizing drivers with the functions that automate driving. The authors present the results of tests carried out on a driving simulator with an implemented Level 4 system (according to SAE classification). Three forms of knowledge transfer were analyzed: practical training, e-learning, and training with a short user manual. The results were compared in terms of driver-vehicle interaction effectiveness (e.g., system activation), ensuring that the driver is sufficiently reactive in dangerous situations and understands the limitations of the system. The research was conducted on a group of 81 drivers aged 18–65. Driver training was one of the main pillars of the Trustonomy project, which received funding from the EU research and innovation program Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No. 815003.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) warn, inform and perform monotonous tasks so that the strain on the driver's side is greatly reduced. They should lead to a further increase in customer mobility through greater comfort, efficiency and safety. As far as the theory goes - in practice, the comfort benefits addressed by the customer are not evident with all driver assistance systems. A previous study of the Lane Keeping Assistance System (LKAS) at Kempten University has shown that the physiological stress and perceived stress of the subjects using the LKAS during a test drive are significantly higher than if the same person refrains from using it. This finding clearly shows that the product still misses the purpose of comfort gain through relief. As a result, customer acceptance is very moderate. The motivation of this study was to identify requirements for the LKAS from the customer's point of view, to measure the degree of fulfilment in a competitive comparison and to learn from the customer assessments overall. By implementing these features, customer satisfaction with the LKAS is to be increased. The feeling of strain should lead to relief and consequently to an increase in the customer's acceptance of the product. Switching off or deactivating the system and the resulting increased safety risk should no longer occur in the future. The customer's wishes should be recognizable in the product specifications.

Most traffic accidents that result in injuries or fatalities occur in intersections. In Japan, where cars drive on the left, most of such accidents involve cars that are turning right. This situation serves as the basis of the development of our Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) for intersection right turns. This research focuses on the scenario in which an object darts out from the blind spot created by heavy oncoming traffic as a vehicle is making an intersection right turn. When this happens, even if the driver brakes as hard as possible or an active safety function such as the Autonomous Emergency Braking System (AEBS) applies the brakes, the natural limits of physical friction may make it impossible to avoid a collision. To improve traffic safety given the limited potential of physical friction, this research seeks to develop a risk-predictive right-turn assistance system. The system predicts potential oncoming objects and reduces the vehicle velocity in advance. Blind corners can be detected by on-board sensors without requiring information from surrounding infrastructure. This paper presents a right-turn assistance system that avoids conflict with the AEBS in emergencies by decelerating the ego vehicle to a safe velocity.

Lane keeping assistance system is a widely used driving assistance system. When the vehicle enters and exits a curve, the responses related to lateral stability will show significant fluctuations. Smooth lane keeping is the cornerstone of the user’s trust towards the lane keeping assistance, and it is important to smooth the responses related to lateral stability. Therefore, in this paper, a lane keeping control strategy that can achieve smooth steering operation is proposed. First of all, the lateral dynamics model that can be used for lane keeping control conveniently is established. In addition, with the model predictive control (MPC), the control strategy for lane keeping is designed. The main control objective is lateral stability, and performance variables are used to measure the performance during lane keeping process. What’s more, the contribution of this paper is that a reference trajectory in the form of an exponential decay function is set for the performance variables, so that the performance variables approach the optimal value in a smooth manner. Finally, two simulation scenarios for lane keeping are set up, and the control strategy in this paper is verified by simulation experiments.

Driving simulators that are capable of simulating a virtual drive at night are increasingly used for the virtual prototyping of light-based driver–assistance systems (DAS). Here, the interplay between driver and assistance system, which enhances the illumination of the road ahead of the vehicle, is investigated. For such investigations, special driving simulators are applied that not only enable a standard driving simulation but also cover the special requirements for the visualization of a driving scenery at night, the simulation of automotive headlights during a virtual drive at night, and the interface to a headlight control module (HCM) that operates the physical headlight prototypes. In this paper, we present the visualization system of the reconfigurable driving simulator from the research project TRAFFIS. We describe the special application focus on the virtual prototyping of a light-based DAS from our project partner Varroc Lighting Systems. The light-based DAS is based on a headlight prototype that combines a glare-free high-beam (GFHB) function and a predictive adaptive frontlighting system (PAFS) for glare-free driving with maximized headlight time.

Due to the rapid development of motor vehicle Driver Assistance Systems (DAS), the safety problems associated with automatic driving have become a hot issue in Intelligent Transportation. The traffic sign is one of the most important tools used to reinforce traffic rules. However, traffic sign image degradation based on computer vision is unavoidable during the vehicle movement process. In order to quickly and accurately recognize traffic signs in motion-blurred images in DAS, a new image restoration algorithm based on border deformation detection in the spatial domain is proposed in this paper. The border of a traffic sign is extracted using color information, and then the width of the border is measured in all directions. According to the width measured and the corresponding direction, both the motion direction and scale of the image can be confirmed, and this information can be used to restore the motion-blurred image. Finally, a gray mean grads (GMG) ratio is presented to evaluate the image restoration quality. Compared to the traditional restoration approach which is based on the blind deconvolution method and Lucy-Richardson method, our method can greatly restore motion blurred images and improve the correct recognition rate. Our experiments show that the proposed method is able to restore traffic sign information accurately and efficiently.

Powered two-wheeler (PTW) riders are most frequently injured seriously to the thorax. Some thorax protective devices have been developed in order to reduce thorax injuries. Nevertheless, actual tests and standard lack real-world accident representativeness. The aim of the study was to determine realistic trunk impact conditions for accidents likely to result in thorax injury. The study is divided into two phases: a literature review to classify accident scenarios based on rider kinematics, and numerical simulations to analyze the riders impact conditions. Three accident scenarios have been found through a literature review and their main configurations have been numerically investigated via multi-body modeling. The 912 performed simulations were used to explore body contacts with counterparts over time, relative velocities and relative body orientation at impact. The results have highlighted the necessity of a conservative activation time delay for triggering protective devices. They have also led to propose three realistic impact conditions that can be used in future test protocols.