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Abstract
The current paper proposes a data analysis method to evaluate the impact of vehicle-technology evolution on road safety based on a recent and extensive accident dataset (1.3 million vehicles in 2017 and 1.7 million in 2018, Italy). Seventeen models of vehicles equipped with an event data recorder were selected for acquiring data, including the distances travelled by the vehicles during the year, and were aggregated by their year of initial registration and model. This unique information in conjunction with the accident datasets enabled a consistent estimation of risk exposure and accident rates for various subsets of vehicles. Thereafter, the comparative analysis of accident rates revealed an improvement in the road safety along with a significant variation between various vehicle models that approximately ranged from 5–10 accidents per million kilometres. Moreover, the accident rate reduced after the electronic stability control system was mandated for vehicles in the market, exhibiting variations in the range of 15–30% for serious accidents that were dependent on the vehicle model. Further safety improvements were identified for the latest generation of vehicles equipped with more advanced technologies such as the autonomous emergency braking that can reduce the accident rate up to 38%.
Acknowledgements
This study is based on a research project carried out in collaboration with Fondazione Filippo Caracciolo (Centro Studi ACI), and the authors are grateful toward the project partners for their valuable comments and discussion.
Declaration of competing interests
No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.
Funding statement
This work was partially supported by Fondazione Filippo Caracciolo (Centro Studi ACI) under a research grant to Politecnico di Torino (n. 305/2019).
Data availability statement
Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.
Notes
1 Proposed list of new mandatory safety features in May 2019: https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/34588. See Article 7 of the Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 for the revised safety equipment for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
2 The ESC system is an active safety system that prevents vehicle skidding when the driver takes a wrong turn or loses control of the vehicle. It is an extension of the ABS technology that includes speed sensors and independent braking for each wheel. The ECS system provides a consolidated solution and has been mandated since November 2011 for all new vehicle types and has been made standard since November 2014 for all new vehicles sold.
3 The AEB systems detect approaching vehicles or other road users by usually measuring their position and speed, and these systems apply braking to either prevent a forthcoming collision or reduce the impact severity. There are two major types of AEB: the “city-AEB” or “low-speed AEB” that can apply brakes to sufficiently avoid a collision for speeds up to 30 km/h or 50 km/h by analysing information from the camera or LIDAR sensors; in addition, the “AEB” can operate at faster speeds to support a driver who tends to apply inadequate pressure on the brakes in an emergency situation.
5 See footnote 3
6 Association of foreign automobile manufacturers operating in Italy.