Editors: | F. Kongoli, A. G. Mamalis, K. Hokamoto |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2018 |
Pages: | 352 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-987820-88-1 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
The number of Autonomous Vehicles (EV) on European roads is rapidly increasing. In the UK, some cities such as London and Manchester have experienced preliminary testing of EVs on their roads in an effort to prove and promote the technology in terms of comfort, drivability and above all safety.
Real accident data collected through in-depth analysis by the California Department of Motor Vehicles based on the statistics from crashes in the Silicon Valley where many of the world AVs are driving on public roads, show problems in the detection and recognition systems. This failure results in AVs crashing into Vulnerable Road Users causing fatal injuries.
The statistics also show the majority of crashes to occur in inner cities, especially at junctions where high fatality rates are recorded because of turbulent traffic flows. Other crashes associated to mainly lamina traffic flow on roads such motorways are linear functions and result in fewer fatalities in comparison with the turbulent traffic modes.
This paper assesses the influence of turbulent traffic flow on passive and active safety systems' performances. The results show that passive safety systems are better in protecting occupants in crashes within turbulent traffic flows than active safety systems. The study also shows that integrated safety systems should be designed-in and not introduced at random where they are used in superseding passive safety systems.