From Detroit Free Press
Modern cars and trucks are doing so much to protect passengers in crashes that automotive engineers say it’s time for vehicles to do more to avoid accidents in the first place — perhaps by doing some of the driving.
Cars that brake just before a crash, steer themselves back into traffic lanes and even tell paramedics the heart rate of their passengers after a crash are all possibilities discussed Wednesday at the Society of Automotive Engineers 2006 World Congress, meeting in Detroit.
The push for high-technology safety measures in vehicles comes as traditional crash safety measures mostly have been spent. But several executives warned that new advances would appear first overseas and be slow in coming to the United States, thanks to a fear of lawsuits.
“We are just at the tip of the iceberg for crash avoidance,” said Robert Yakushi, director of product safety for Nissan North America.
U.S. deaths from traffic accidents have held steady at about 39,000 people a year in recent years, as safety improvements have been canceled out by higher speeds and more miles driven per year.
As electronics have come to control more and more parts of a vehicle, the opportunity for inventing new safety features has grown. Not all work out as planned; antilock brakes, for example, have so far offered little improvement over regular brakes.
But one technology — electronic stability control — has proven so effective in reducing crashes of all varieties that U.S. regulators are expected to propose making it a requirement on future vehicles. Several studies have shown that stability control, which keeps vehicles from skidding, can reduce single-vehicle crashes by as much as 50 percent.
Thomas Baloga, general manager of safety engineering for BMW North America, said that recent federal safety rule changes, such as stronger roofs, are expected to save about 1,600 lives a year. Making electronic stability control standard could save 9,000 lives a year, he said.
“Even if you cut that number in half, it’s certainly thousands of lives saved, and that’s the way we want to go,” he said.
Some more advanced technology is starting to seep into the U.S. market. Honda Motor Co.’s Acura RL sedan includes a system that uses radar to sense when a crash is imminent, then applies the brakes and tightens the seat belt.
Nissan sells a system on several Infiniti models that warns drivers when they allow the vehicle to wander out of its traffic lane. Yakushi said the next version of the system would automatically steer the vehicle back into the lane.
Other possibilities include vehicles that communicate with one another and with traffic lights or roads, warning drivers of oncoming vehicles they could not otherwise see. Honda’s ASV3 vehicle includes a heart-rate monitor and camera, which could transmit data about passengers after a crash to paramedics.
It’s no accident that many of these technologies come from Europe or Japan. Executives said the threat of lawsuits in the United States makes automakers cautious about rolling out safety improvements, which suggest the previous model was not as safe as it could be.
“What the lawsuits end up doing is making the industry more defensive about any improvements in technology,” said Priya Prasad, a technical fellow in safety research at Ford Motor Co. “We need a safe harbor because, if a safe harbor isn’t created, the lawsuits will stop the development of new technologies.”
Copyright 2006 Detroit Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
_______________________________________
Click here to view the rest of today’s headlines.
