According to European Union figures, more than 25,000 people were killed on European roads in 2017 and 135,000 seriously injured, a figure that has remained constant over the past four years. As part of its accident reduction initiative, the European Union has launched Regulation 2019/2144, which provides for the inclusion of safety systems in vehicles. This regulation has been put in place to improve the safety of people in and out of vehicles, and includes drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and road users in general.
ADAS systems - a solution to prevent accidents
In view of the increasing number of fatalities and injuries on highways and public roads, it is imperative to improve the safety of people by equipping vehicles with advanced safety systems. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have become a very common feature in today's vehicles. The advantages offered by the combination of Artificial Intelligence with radars, cameras and sensors in our vehicles, translate into a drastic reduction in the number of accidents and collisions and improve bus safety, as they help prevent distractions by alerting the driver to situations such as unwanted lane changes, eliminate blind spots, alert in case of insufficient braking distance, or detect pedestrians on the road, to name a few examples.
95% of accidents could be avoided if the driver is warned 3 seconds before a dangerous situation occurs. The Pedestrian Collision Warning (PCW) system monitors the road ahead and its surroundings in a comprehensive and proactive manner. It gives the driver full control of the situation and generates an event when a pedestrian, cyclist or scooter interferes with the safety zone.
When the system detects pedestrians in front of the vehicle, it warns the driver by means of an acoustic and a visual signal that is reproduced on the warning device available to the driver on the dashboard. The system warns of the detection of a pedestrian in the proximity field with a green icon; if that is not enough, it will announce the imminent risk of collision with red lights and acoustic signals. In this way it allows the driver to react, make decisions in time and avoid risky situations, thus avoiding accidents.
Several studies show the effectiveness of the pedestrian detector, provided that the vehicle is moving within the speed limits. Apart from having a high level of acceptance by road users, the pedestrian detector allows the driver to react in time, make the right decisions, avoid risky situations and focus his attention on other aspects of driving that are also of vital importance.
