Victorian Parliamentary Road Safety Committee. Inquiry into Serious Injury

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3 Victorian Parliamentary Road Safety Committee Inquiry into Serious Injury Submission: Robert Bosch Australia, May 2013 Contact: Mark Jackman Regional President Chassis Systems Control Although Australia has been a fast adopter of safety technologies and systems to improve vehicle safety and we have seen a clear and steady reduction in the number of fatalities on our roads over the last number of years, we have also seen a concerning increase in the number of injuries. In the National Road Safety Strategy, authorities have set a target of reducing fatalities and injuries by 30% here in Australia by Currently we are on track to achieve a fatality reduction of 25%, but injuries are showing an increase of 15%. The message from this is that more needs to be done to achieve our road safety targets. What we have achieved is a reduction in accident severity that turns potential fatalities into injuries. Mitigating the severity of an accident is a positive goal, but what we really need to aim for is collision avoidance. So how do we go about avoiding vehicle accidents entirely? Many of the technologies introduced into vehicles in recent decades have been focused on accident and injury mitigation. This is an admirable cause but now we find ourselves facing the next challenge that is reducing the number of accidents by a substantial amount. Bosch has a target of zero accidents by 2030 and to achieve that we are focusing on the complete vehicle system and researching how these technologies can best be applied to support the aforementioned target. Some of the recent technologies that are being combined to form the safety system include the following. a. Electronic Stability Control (ESC also known by acronym -ESP) b. Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) c. Lane Departure Warning (LDW) d. Driver Drowsiness Detection (DDD) e. Back Over Avoidance (BoA) f. Trailer sway mitigation (TSM) g. Motorcycle Stability Control (MSC) Each of the above products when installed in a vehicle can bring increased safety on their own, but when integrated together can become even more effective and form a key part of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). For example, consider the scenario of a vehicle towing a caravan which crosses a bridge and is subject to some high cross winds. The caravan starts to sway leading potentially to a multi-vehicle collision. Instead technology activates in the following ways:

4 1. Trailer sway is mitigated by autonomous braking on either the caravan, the towing vehicle or both. This mitigates the sway and slows the vehicle trailer combination down 2. Brake lights are automatically activated to warn any vehicles travelling behind the caravan that it is slowing 3. A signal is transmitted automatically to road infrastructure that logs where the trailer sway event occurred 4. The road infrastructure recognises the event location as a bridge and utilising current weather information interprets the cause as potential high cross winds. 5. A high cross wind signal is transmitted to all other vehicles in the vicinity for the next 30 minutes 6. This signal is received by the navigation systems in the other vehicles and a warning of potentially high cross winds is given to the driver as they approach the hazardous location. 7. For any approaching towing vehicles a speed reduction signal is received and used to slow their approach to a safer speed for driving through that particular location bringing about a safer situation for other road users. To achieve such a scenario requires infrastructure cooperation and commitment to that goal of zero accidents. Cooperation between technology suppliers such as Bosch, vehicle manufacturers, regulatory bodies, government at various levels, builders of road infrastructure and public interest groups. This inquiry into serious injury presents the government with an opportunity show leadership in the area of integrated safety by promoting, educating and encouraging the take-up and acceptance of these technologies through a range of measures including, but not limited to: 1. Incentivise Safety Technologies While ESP is now mandatory on all new vehicles from 2013, many advanced technologies are fitted only on the higher cost vehicle models. This low rate of uptake is due to several reasons including lack of public awareness or that the vehicle manufacturer has elected not to offer the feature on a particular model. Around 10 years ago ESP systems were mostly limited to the top end European models and Australian or Japanese manufacturers did not see a business case or sufficient consumer demand for the safety systems. Incentives for the uptake of safer vehicles may include awareness campaigns such as those undertaken by the TAC in 2006 for ESC ( Four Little Words TV Ad). Clearer visibility of the technologies fitted ie: through additional information on an ANCAP star rating label system. A safety levy on any 1, 2 or 3 star vehicle decreasing to zero for a 5 star rating would provide incentive for fleet and private buyers to select the safest cars and help fund some of the real cost of serious injury. Serious injury on a motorcycle is four times more likely than in a car. The motorcycle ABS system prevents wheel lock up and allows the rider to brake as firmly as needed without any loss of control. In some European countries authorities have legislated that autonomous emergency braking systems will be mandatory for trucks from The authorities in USA are currently debating legislation mandating reversing cameras and leading companies here in Australia have set as policy that only 5 star vehicles will be used by their employees and on site contractors.

5 2. Vehicle Maintenance A well maintained vehicle has the best possible chance of avoiding an accident or reducing the chance/severity of injury in an accident. Modern vehicles use sophisticated sensing technologies to determine the state of the vehicle, driver and traffic flow to decide if or how the driver should be warned or assisted in a hazardous situation. These technologies and their sensors need to be checked to ensure they are working perfectly all the time. While modern systems are relatively maintenance free it is possible that wear and tear may see faults develop and be detected intermittently. In this case a fault code is logged and stored in the vehicle s computer. Bosch recommends that all vehicles are serviced regularly including a fault code check. A skilled technician can, with the right tools, read the fault codes for almost any vehicle. He can then recommend to the driver a course of action to either repair or seek further fault diagnosis from a dealer should the cause of a fault be uncertain. With all the safety systems fully operational and an otherwise well maintained vehicle the chance of serious injury or collision is minimised. 3. Driver Education and Training Driver trainers have a significant role in supporting and directing the development of learners and early drivers. With this role comes a responsibility to be informed about the latest vehicle safety functions and how a driver must behave to get the most from them. For example: In the 1980 s a trainer instructed the driver to control a car in an emergency by pumping the brakes to minimise the stopping distance and maintain the car s ability to steer around a hazard. However, current vehicle technologies such as ESP (Electronic Stability Program/Control) are common on newer vehicles and are best utilised in an emergency stop by teaching a driver to brake as hard as they can while steering around the hazard. Modern cars have several active and passive safety technologies designed to help avoid an accident or at least to mitigate its severity. These technologies such as side/curtain air bags, Driver Drowsiness Detection, Lane Departure Warning and autonomous emergency braking have their effectiveness maximised if the driver understands their basic function. Simple instructions during a training session are the basis of good driver behaviour and a safer road user group. Conclusion Serious injury and road trauma costs Australians more than $27 billion each year and affect thousands of lives. The potential to reduce that impact to our families should be better exploited using the highly skilled people, technologies and systems that we have available today. Bosch would welcome the opportunity to further develop some of these concepts or to elaborate on any of the suggestions above.