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eSafety
is an industry/public sector initiative for improving road safety by using new
Information and Communications technologies. The overall objective of the
effort is to build up jointly a European strategy to accelerate the research,
development, deployment and use of Intelligent Integrated Road Safety. One
example of the type of systems being considered is Advanced Driver Assistance
Systems (ADAS) for increasing road safety in Europe.
The
eSafety activities are led by a High-Level Group (including top level persons in
the automotive industry and government organizations) and an eSafety Working
Group. The Working Group met four
times during 2002 and developed the set of recommendations described here, which
were endorsed by the High Level Group in November.
Participants
in the process (members of the Groups) include several directorates of the
European Commission (which provides overall leadership) as well as:
-
User
Organizations: Automobile
Club of Germany, International Federation of Automobile Clubs
-
Road
Operators: Cofiroute,
Dutch Ministry of Transport, Association of West European Road Directors,
Societa Autostrade
-
Vehicle
Manufacturers: DaimlerChrysler,
Fiat, Ford, PSA, Renault, Volkswagen
-
Suppliers: Navigation Technologies Europe, Siemens, TeleAtlas,
Vodaphone
-
Enforcement:
Dutch National Police Agency
-
Associations:
ERTICO
The
entire process is driven by an ambitious goal adopted by the European
Commission: achieving a 50%
reduction of road fatalities. There is also some attention given to improving mobility
through improvements in traffic flow.
Cooperative
Systems Play a Key Role in Safety Strategy
The
Final Report states that “we are now looking towards a new generation of
active safety systems and Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems. These
systems will take into account not just the driver and the vehicle, but also the
environment around the vehicle. Co-operative systems will enable essential
safety information to be exchanged between the vehicle and other vehicles, and
the infrastructure. By receiving
information from outside of the vehicle, the systems will be able to assess the
risk of an accident happening. They can then warn the driver so that he
can take appropriate action, or they can even initiate appropriate action.
If an accident becomes unavoidable the systems could use that same information
to optimize
the passive safety systems. Other safety systems can also automatically
summon assistance following an accident.”
The
report emphasizes the importance of taking
an integrated approach to road safety: “Integrated Intelligent Road Safety
Systems will use information society technologies and intelligent transport
systems in vehicles and the infrastructure for improving the safety of the
vehicle, taking an integrated and global
approach to safety, where the involvement of and interaction between the
driver, the vehicle and the road environment are addressed together.
Integrated Safety Systems will help the driver in vehicle control and use new
sensors for collision warning and mitigation, lane keeping, vulnerable road user
detection, driver condition monitoring and improved vision. Other
technologies will provide for automatic emergency calls, adaptive speed
limitation, traffic management and parking aids."
Vision
for the Intelligent Vehicle
A
very clear vision for vehicle-road systems of the future is offered by the
eSafety Group in the report:
"The driver is sitting behind the
steering wheel and is driving at 70 km/h. He steers the vehicle into a
corner. To do so he uses information acquired by looking at the total
road picture, the surroundings and his in-car instruments. The in-car
applications continuously receive information from cameras (visible light and
infrared), in-vehicle radar systems, digital maps, GNSS satellites for
location information, vehicle-infrastructure communication, information from
other vehicles and the like. The information collected by these sensors
is verified by the in-vehicle control unit, integrated, analysed and
processed, and presented to the driver.
"In this case, there has been an accident on the road, around the corner and not visible
to the driver. The Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), part of the
on-board intelligent integrated safety system, intervenes by giving an audible
warning (a spoken message), based on information received from vehicles ahead.
The driver knows that he remains in control of the vehicle and can always ignore
signals or override active assistance. He reduces speed, and is able
to stop safely before the accident site. His car starts immediately to broadcast
warnings to the vehicles following behind.
"The
driver is also aware that his car is equipped with a sophisticated safety system
which can do even more in hazardous situations. Depending on the degree and
timing of the danger the system would inform him, warn him, actively assist him
or ultimately actively intervene to avoid the danger. If the intervention cannot
avoid the crash completely, intelligent passive safety applications will be
deployed in an optimal way to protect the vehicle occupants and possibly other
parties involved in the accident (vulnerable road users). The system will also
automatically contact the emergency services indicating the severity and
location of the accident.
Recommendations:
Highlights
Several
areas are seen in the report as representing significant steps forward. The
recommendations include a call for an Implementation Road Map that balances
business, societal, and user issues. The
road map is envisioned as providing clear milestones for Intelligent Integrated
Road Safety Systems, and is therefore seen as a key element for their successful
take-up. The report states that this Road Map “should indicate the technical
and economic capability of the automotive industry to deploy intelligent
integrated safety solutions, and, for the public sector, the time-table for
infrastructure investments and other support measures.”
Development
of digital maps capable of supporting safety systems is also emphasized.
The report asserts that the lack of a
digital map containing safety-related road data of high quality is a major
barrier for the introduction of autonomous and interactive safety systems.
Recognizing that the private sector cannot undertake this alone, the
recommendation states that “European road map data bases containing additional
agreed attributes for driver-support and advisory purposes should be produced,
maintained and certified under the responsibility of a public-private
partnership and made available at acceptable prices for end users (possibly free
of charge) and in an open format to all parties interested in implementing
Intelligent Integrated Road Safety Systems and services. This partnership should,
among other tasks, define which data, attributes, functions and services will be
required from both the mapping industry and the public sector road authorities,
and determine how they will be compiled and certified. An important additional
application will be the production of a specific database for commercial
vehicles including data on weight, height and width restrictions on the road
network.”
Incentives
are called for to stimulate and support road users and fleet owners to buy
vehicles with intelligent safety functions and to use safety-related services.
Incentives such as tax reductions, lowering insurance premiums, and
preferential treatment are noted, and it is emphasized that this support should
target especially the buyers who choose to equip their vehicles with
co-operative safety systems, thus helping to create an initial market demand for
advanced safety systems. This
initiative reflects similar discussions in the US regarding development of the
“TEA-22” transportation legislation now being developed by the US Congress.
And,
echoing themes heard at the eSafety conference in Lyon last September, the
report calls for increased levels of international cooperation, in areas such as
standardizations, development of test methodologies, legal issues, and benefits
assessment.
Recommendations
Following
is the full list of eSafety recommendations.
Accident Causation
(1)
Consolidate analyses from the existing EU, Member State and industry road
accident data which give information on the cause and circumstances of the
accidents, for allowing the determination of the most efficient countermeasures,
starting from the most frequent accident types.
(2)
Define a common format and structure for recording accident data in the EU
countries. Develop jointly an European Accident Causation Database covering all
EU and enlargement countries, and provide open access to industry and public
agencies.
Assessing Impact of Safety Technologies
(3)
Develop methodology to assess the potential impact of intelligent integrated
safety technologies in Europe based on the accident causation data. This work
should carry out analysis of combined systems (fusion of sensors, integration
and use of multiple active safety systems together).
Develop validation methodology and
procedures for vehicles equipped with
Intelligent Integrated Road Safety Systems
(4)
Set up a coordinated validation framework for operational tests for active
safety systems in the Member States.
Human-Machine Interaction
(5)
Assess the reports by the Member States on the Commission Recommendation
“Statement of Principles on safe and efficient in-vehicle information and
communications systems”, and decide on further actions as necessary taking
into account the rapid development in this area.
The
use of portable (nomadic) devices requires urgent assessment of risks.
(6)
Develop workload assessment, testing and certification methodology and
procedures for complex in-vehicle working environments involving interfacing
with in-vehicle devices for vehicle control, driver assistance, intelligent
integrated safety, including Multi-Media systems.
Intelligent Integrated Safety Systems Road
Map
(7)
a) Develop regularly reviewed Road Maps with technical steps and economic
implications for the introduction of Intelligent Integrated Road Safety Systems.
a)
These Road Maps should indicate the technical and economic capability of the
stakeholder industries to deploy intelligent integrated safety solutions.
b)
The public sector Road Maps should indicate the investments required for
improvements in the road networks and information infrastructure based on the
industrial Road Maps, and identify the steps needed for removing regulatory
barriers.
Intelligent
Integrated Road Safety Systems, Including ADAS
(8)
Analyse existing accident causation data and possible countermeasures, and
determine clear goals and priorities for further RTD in Intelligent
Integrated Road Safety Systems in industrial research, Community Research
(Integrated Projects in the 6th FP) and national research programmes.
(9)
Identify existing specifications, and where necessary develop new specifications
for pan-European, standardised interoperable interfaces and communications
protocols for vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-infrastructure communications which
will support interactive, co-operative safety systems and services, including
Traffic and Travel Information.
(10)
Pursue international co-operation in the development of intelligent integrated
safety technologies.
The
co-operation should cover especially Human-Machine Interaction, certification
and testing methodology and procedures, harmonisation and standardisation, legal
issues, impact and socio-economic benefit analysis, and benchmarking/best
practice.
Digital Maps for Safety
(11)
Based on existing research results, define requirements for a European digital
road map database. This database should contain in addition to road map data
agreed road safety attributes for driver-support for information and warning
purposes, such as speed information and road configuration data.
Create
a public-private partnership to produce, maintain certify and distribute this
digital road map data base.
It should be made available for all users at
affordable prices (possibly free of charge).
National, local and regional
authorities and operators should provide safety-related data on
road
configurations within their networks, with target dates for implementation.
Emergency Services
(12)
After consultations (telecommunications authorities, civil protection
authorities, industry through CGALIES) adopt a Commission Recommendation on the
introduction and implementation of E-112 in Europe.
(13)
Establish a European Emergency Communications Forum to continue the CGALIES work
and to monitor the implementation of E-112 in the Member States.
Establish
national liaison groups to co-ordinate the implementation and
building
up of the E-112 service chain.
(14)
For in-vehicle emergency calls (e-calls), establish data requirements and data
transfer protocol for e-Calls originating from vehicles. Establish an interface
specification and routing and handling procedures for e-Calls with location and
other accident-related information.
Traffic and Travel Information
(15)
Analyse the Member States’ responses to the TTI Recommendation, draw up
further actions if necessary, and make a progress report to the Council and the
European Parliament.
(16)
Create public-private partnerships to capture, process and provide real-time
traffic, travel and road condition data from a variety of sources, including
Floating Vehicle Data.
(17)
Support the wider use of the pan-European RDS/TMC network for safety-related
traffic information.
Provide
a report with required actions to the European Commission on the
status of RDS/TMC
implementation and the remaining bottlenecks.
Motor
Vehicle Type-Approval Legislation
(18)
Determine what actions may be required for rapidly bringing forward road safety
improvements obtainable with Intelligent Integrated Road Safety Systems in
vehicles.
Standardization
(19)
Analyse the specific needs and priorities of the intelligent integrated road
safety systems for standardisation in ISO, CEN and ETSI.
For
vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-infrastructure communications, promote the
accelerated standardisation of emerging communications protocols.
For CEN, based
on the recently published report of the M270 mandate, choose the appropriate
mechanisms (Committee Working Agreements, full EN standards), and establish the
necessary working groups.
Legal Issues in Market Introduction
(20)
Develop a methodology for risk benefit assessment, achieve an industrial and
societal consensus on a European Code of Practice, and establish guidelines for
facilitating the market introduction of Intelligent Integrated Road Safety
Systems.
Ultra Wide Band Short Range Radar
(21)
Take the necessary actions for removing regulatory barriers to the use of the 24
GHz spectrum for short-range radar in Europe. This will include issuing an EU
liaison statement to ECC and to national administrations requesting
international regulations through the ITU-R concerning UWB Radar Sensors.
(22)
Undertake the standardisation in ETSI for the 24GHz UWB Radar by implementing
the EU Mandate for ETSI and completing and publishing the relevant standard.
Societal Aspects
(23)
Estimate the socio-economic benefits which can be obtained through the reduction
of fatalities, injuries and material damage by the introduction of Intelligent
Integrated Road Safety Systems. This should include an analysis of the reduction
in medical care and other expenses in the Member States and enlargement states,
and benefits like improved journey times and reduced congestion and
environmental impact.
(24)
Stimulate and support road users and fleet owners to buy vehicles with
intelligent safety functions and to use safety-related services by incentives
such as tax reductions, lowering insurance premiums, and preferential treatment.
This
support should target especially the buyers who choose to equip
their
vehicles with co-operative safety systems, thus helping to create an
initial market
demand for advanced safety systems.
Business Case
(25)
Identify best practices for positive business cases to promote the introduction
of Intelligent Integrated Road Safety Systems, including analysis of the
required bundling of the functions, priorities for market introduction,
co-funding schemes, and public private partnership.
(26)
Support the e-Call business model by implementing the full service chain and
ensuring inter-operability, compatibility with E-112 systems and direct links to
infrastructure operators and vehicle breakdown services. Training of personnel
has to be provided for.
User Outreach
(27)
Design and execute awareness campaigns which explain the benefits, functioning
and use of the Intelligent Integrated Road Safety Systems to the consumers.
ESafety Forum
(28)
Create an eSafety Forum with the objective to monitor and promote the
implementation of these recommendations, and to support the development,
deployment and use of intelligent integrated road safety systems. Determine its
objectives, Terms of Reference, draft a Memorandum of Understanding and
organisation. Establish membership and work programme.
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