Making the world safer: autonomous emergency braking systems enhance safety for senior drivers

ABSTRACT

Active safety system components, such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems, are designed to play a key role in preventing serious car accidents. We investigate the extent to which vehicles with an AEB system are safer than those without it. Empirical analysis shows that the relative risk of accident when driving a car equipped with AEB is not lower than driving one without AEB. However, when we focus on drivers aged 70 years or older, those driving with AEB are safer than they otherwise would be: their risk is approximately two-third lower. Thus, an AEB system is effective for drivers who need the most assistance.

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomous emergency braking
• car crash
• accident risk

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• Number: R41

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to an anonymous referee for useful comments and Taiji Furusawa for helpful discussions. The usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Overview of Automobile Insurance in Japan in FY2019 (in Japanese) by The General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan.

² For estimation issues with the model of Levitt and Porter (2001), see Dunn and Tefft (2020).

³ www.itarda.or.jp/english.

⁴ Overview of Automobile Insurance in Japan in FY2019 (in Japanese) by the General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan.

⁵ Driver’s Licence Statistics by the National Police Agency.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for this research was provided by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [17H04550, 18K01624].