It’s no secret that when it comes to embracing cycling culture – including safety – Europe excels. A new crash test developed to gauge how well a car senses a nearby bicyclist may be one of the latest examples.
On Wednesday, the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) announced that the Nissan LEAF, an all electric car, was the first to be evaluated for its cyclist detection capability.
The safety group, which tests vehicles based on standards set by the United Nations and offer consumers safety information for models sold in the European market, called the debut test for autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems that includes bicyclist crash scenarios, “a world first,” ahead of legislation and consumer testing worldwide.
Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists accounts for almost half of Europe’s road fatalities and bicyclists’ deaths are on the rise in many countries, according to the group.
“Our new assessments demonstrate the increasing level of sophistication that can be achieved by connecting various sensor systems installed on the vehicle,” Michiel van Ratingen, secretary general of Euro NCAP, said in a statement. “As the cost of these systems drops and computing capabilities increase, standard vehicles will soon become able to help prevent significantly more complex real-life crashes.” He said the group would continue to challenge auto makers to deliver the highest levels of safety performance as standard for all road users.
AEB systems, also called auto brake technology, can bring a vehicle to a safe halt before a cyclist is struck, or at least reduce the speed of the collision, Euro NCAP said. By including the new cyclist-detection test in its safety ratings, it is able to verify how well the technology works to prevent potentially fatal crashes that occur between cars and cyclists.
Detecting cyclists is technically challenging compared to detecting pedestrians, the group said, as their speeds are higher: vehicle manufacturers must use sensors with wider fields of view and there is less processing time in which to make a decision whether to brake or not.
The new cyclist-detection was included in the category that tests for pedestrian safety. The new designation, called AEB Vulnerable Road Users, earned the Leaf a 71% rating.
Overall, the new LEAF earned 5 stars “in toughest safety tests to date,” Euro NCAP said, noting that in addition to introducing the cyclist detection assessment that takes into account the growing number of bicyclists. it had recently improved some evaluations and introduced a new raft of others, including for pedestrian detection in darkness and obscure lighting conditions and intelligent lane support systems that autonomously take evasive action if the car is in danger of leaving the road or of colliding with another vehicle.
“It was the drive to save cyclists’ lives which inspired the Dutch government to fund a major project which led to the development of a protocol for detecting cyclists,” Robbert Verweij, a Euro NCAP board member and senior policy advisor at the Dutch Ministry of Transport, said in a statement. The new test “shows what the joint efforts of governments and cyclists’ associations can achieve in collaboration with Euro NCAP,” he said.
Sursa: forbes.com