In order to support the development of the scenarios that are used for testing vehicle systems that prevent collisions with pedestrians, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has joined forces with the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) and test equipment providers to develop an articulated pedestrian dummy which can better simulate a pedestrian crossing the street.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that help prevent or mitigate collisions with pedestrians, such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems and front collision warning (FCW), are increasingly common. These systems use sophisticated technology to automatically intervene when a driver fails to brake in time.

In 2016, Euro NCAP (the European safety performance assessment programme for new cars) introduced a new test to determine how effective vehicles are at autonomously detecting and preventing collisions with pedestrians. However, static test dummies were not able to accurately replicate the characteristics of a moving pedestrian.

Hence, ACEA and its members have contributed to developing a new test dummy in an effort to demonstrate the safety performance of their vehicles by conducting tests under the most realistic conditions possible. This new model is able to simulate the characteristics of a pedestrian crossing the road and therefore provides a much better representation compared to previous non-articulated dummies. This upgrade was realised by adding two realistically moving legs to the dummy, which help to ensure that the vehicle’s systems will be tested using real human attributes.

As a result of these joint industry efforts, Euro NCAP’s Autonomous Emergency Braking Pedestrian Tests will be conducted under even more realistic conditions. The new articulated dummy is already available on the global market as a serial product with short delivery time. Moreover, the parties that have developed the new dummy want to contribute to improving pedestrians’ safety by making their know-how publically available in the ‘Pedestrian Target Specifications’ document, which enables anyone to build a similar test dummy.

Europe’s automotive industry is continuously working to further improve the safety performance of its vehicles. In part due to significant investments by the industry, road fatalities in the EU have been halved from their 2001 figure of 55,000 to 25,700 in 2014.

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·         ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association represents the 15 Europe-based car, van, truck and bus manufacturers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Ford of Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, IVECO, Jaguar Land Rover, Opel Group, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault Group, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group. More information can be found on www.acea.be or @ACEA_eu.

More information: Cara McLaughlin, Communications Director, cm@acea.be, +32 2 738 73 45, www.acea.be
 

·         CLEPA is the European Association of Automotive Suppliers. 116 of the world's most prominent suppliers for car parts, systems and modules and 23 National trade associations and European sector associations are members of CLEPA, representing more than 3 thousand companies, employing more than 5 million people and covering all products and services within the automotive supply chain. Based in Brussels, CLEPA is recognized as the natural discussion partner by the European Institutions, United Nations and fellow associations (ACEA, JAMA, MEMA, etc).

More information: Amalia Di Stefano, Deputy CEO, a.distefano@clepa.be, +32 2 743 91 35, www.clepa.eu

·         Euro NCAP the European New Car Assessment Programme provides consumers with an independent assessment of the safety level of the most popular cars sold in Europe. Established in 1997, Euro NCAP is composed of seven European Governments as well as motoring and consumer organisations in every European country. Euro NCAP has rapidly become a catalyst for encouraging significant safety improvements to new car design.

More information: Marie Brasseur, Communications Manager, marie_brasseur@euroncap.com, +32 2 400 77 46, www.euroncap.com

·         4a Gruppeis working in the field of active vehicle safety with the main focus in facility technologies and dummy objects. Since 2006 we are developing and manufacturing mobile as well as stationary AEB-test equipment for outdoor use. The challenge therefore is to move and to display the dummies (for example a pedestrian or cyclist) in a realistic way with regard to different sensor systems like radar, infrared or optic. 4activeSystems GmbH is part of the 4a technology group. All 4a companies are linked by their joint mission statement: “in physics we trust …”.