Evaluation of comfort zone boundary based automated emergencybraking algorithms for car-to-powered-two-wheeler crashes inChina

Journal article, 2024

Crashes between cars and powered two-wheelers (PTWs: motorcycles, scooters, and e-bikes) are a safety concern; as a result, developing car safety systems that protect PTWriders is essential. While the pre-crash protection system automated emergency braking(AEB) has been shown to avoid and mitigate injuries for car-to-car, car-to-cyclist, and car-to-pedestrian crashes, much is still unknown about its effectiveness in car-to-PTW crashes.Further, the characteristics of the crashes that remain after the introduction of such systemsin traffic are also largely unknown. This study estimates the crash avoidance and injury riskreduction performance of six different PTW-AEB algorithms that were virtually applied toreconstructed car-to-PTW pre-crash kinematics extracted from a Chinese in-depth crashdatabase. Five of the algorithms include combinations of drivers’ and PTW riders’ comfortzone boundaries for braking and steering, while the sixth is a traditional AEB. Results showthat the average safety performance of the algorithms using only the driver’s comfort zoneboundaries is higher than that of the traditional AEB algorithm. All algorithms resultedin similar distributions of impact speed and impact locations, which means that in-crashprotection systems likely can be made less complex, not having to consider differences inAEB algorithm design among car manufacturers.