Steering control collision avoidance system and verification through subject study

Many of vehicle crash related fatalities are caused by run-off-road crashes and failures of the drivers to avoid obstacles in front of them. This can happen in near collision encounters, where the driver should steer in order to avoid a crash. In these situations, some drivers steer too much and go off the road, and some do not steer enough and collide with the obstacle. In this study, the authors developed a steering control collision avoidance system (SCCAS) to help drivers to safely perform severe manoeuvres and avoid such crashes. This system is activated by the driver´s steering input, and was implemented in a car driving simulator to study human interactions. Testing the subjects with no collision avoidance feature resulted in collision with the obstacles in 61 out of 63 encounters; whereas, using the implemented SCCAS, the subjects avoided 44 out of 60 near collision encounters in a new scenario with the same level of difficulty as the original tests. The post-experiment surveys revealed that besides the effectiveness of the system in reducing the crashes, it was acceptable to the drivers and they found the activation type intuitive.