Additions to current phase of research explore
a diversity of topics in driver behavior, crash avoidance and crash
injury mitigation
CSRC, Discovery Education and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst develop new
teen driver training program, Risk ATTEND, which launches on
TeenDrive365
CSRC also releases summaries of fourteen
recently completed projects
ANN
ARBOR, Mich., June 4, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Toyota's Collaborative Safety Research Center
(CSRC) today announced fifteen new projects to help advance
automotive safety industrywide for societal good. These additions
to CSRC's current five-year research phase focus on better
understanding driver behavior, crash avoidance and crash injury
mitigation.
"Through launching these projects, CSRC is responding to the
latest trends in automotive industry and traffic safety," said CSRC
Director Danil Prokhorov. "We are
focused on nimbleness by addressing today's safety needs with new
insights into future products, processes and policies that can help
create a safe mobility society for tomorrow."
Additionally, Toyota announced the launch of the Toyota
Risk ATTEND Program (Risk Anticipation Training to Enhance Novice
Driving), based on CSRC research. Many new drivers know about
distracted driving, but Toyota is extending that knowledge to
interactive learning. Through self-paced driving simulation modules
developed in collaboration with Discovery Education and the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst,
teens are exposed to difficult driving scenarios before
encountering them behind the wheel, helping to improve drivers'
abilities to predict or detect risky situations on the road. The
Risk ATTEND module joins the full Toyota teen-driver toolkit at
TeenDrive365.
Following are CSRC's new projects, categorized by their
application to CSRC's current research tracks – Human-Centric (safe
technology interaction with people), Safety Assurance (crash
avoidance) and Assessment (safety decision-making empowerment) –
which are designed to address the emerging challenges of the
changing mobility ecosystem.
Project
Title
|
Collaborator
|
Research
Question
|
Overview
|
Human
Centric
|
|
|
|
Human factors of novel
longitudinal vehicle operation
|
University of Michigan
– Dearborn
|
How can various vehicle
speed features (e.g., adaptive cruise, proactive driving assist,
BEV one-pedal) be integrated to enhance customer safety and
comfort?
|
Researchers plan to use
a combination of psychological tools, driving simulator
experiments, and prototype testing to create new design guidance to
improve customer experience.
|
Customer Education and
Onboarding of Driver Assistance Systems
|
University of
Iowa
|
How can informing
drivers of their responsibilities when using driving assistance
systems be integrated into various consumer education and
onboarding processes to assist safe and efficient use?
|
Researchers will use
driving simulator experiments to test the effectiveness of multiple
consumer education approaches delivered at point of purchase, after
OTA updates, or real-time use.
|
Enabling driver
anticipation of L2 driving automation limits
|
University of
Wisconsin
|
How do different design
limitations in SAE L2 driving automation affect drivers' trust and
understanding of system functionality?
|
Researchers will
develop a design framework around existing ISO standard methods to
provide ways for drivers to anticipate when a safety-relevant event
may occur. The focus of this project will be on human-machine
interfaces that enable this anticipation.
|
Historical analysis of
cognitive distraction data
|
MIT-AgeLab
|
What are the effects of
cognitive distraction in naturalistic (real world)
settings?
|
Leveraging 10+ years of
driver distraction research by CSRC and the MIT AgeLab, researchers
will explore existing on-road experimental data for new insights
into "cognitive" (e.g., non-visual) distraction given the latest
scientific perspectives.
|
Incorporating driver
trip motivations into risky driving prediction and
prevention
|
Touchstone Evaluations,
Inc.
|
Can driver trip goals
and types be used to predict and prevent risky driving
behaviors?
|
Researchers will
analyze naturalistic (real world) driving data to classify trip
goals and types and incorporate these into new prediction
algorithms to assist in risky driving prevention
countermeasures.
|
Driver state management
through behavioral safety interventions
|
Touchstone Evaluations,
Inc.
|
Can a driver's negative
behaviors or conditions be reduced through behavioral
interventions?
|
Researchers will
conduct two studies evaluating ways to reduce combinations of
negative driver conditions, such as stress or distraction, to guide
development of driver messages and feedback to enhance the driver
experience and safe decision-making.
|
Safety
Assurance
|
|
|
|
High Speed Crash
Scenarios and Effectiveness of Automatic Emergency Braking
(AEB)
|
University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)
|
How effective are
current automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems for typical
high-speed crashes in the US, and how could they be further
enhanced?
|
Researchers will use
in-depth analysis of high-speed crash data from existing US
databases to estimate the real-world performance of AEB systems to
guide future system design and assessment tests.
|
Vulnerable Road Users
(VRU) Trajectory Prediction
|
Purdue
University
Indiana
University
|
Can the sudden
movements of pedestrians, cyclists, and other VRUs be predicted in
advance?
|
Using previously
collected real-world data, researchers will use machine learning to
create trajectory prediction algorithms from camera, lidar, radar,
G sensor, and high-definition maps to provide tools for enhancing
future crash avoidance technology.
|
Micro Doppler
Signatures for Vulnerable Road Users (VRU)
|
Purdue
University
Indiana
University
|
Can the latest sensor
strategies enhance vehicle detection of pedestrians, cyclists, and
e-scooter riders?
|
Researchers will take
more than 500 Micro Doppler (MD) measurements of 30 different VRUs
at several distances and motion directions and use these to study
VRU recognition methods considering potential test
surrogates.
|
Characterizing Crashes
Related to Driver Alcohol Impairment
|
Impact Research,
LLC
|
What driver and travel
scenarios are most associated with alcohol-related crashes and
fatalities?
|
Researchers will study
the latest data from US crash databases and police crash reports to
quantify trends for drivers and trip types as well as the potential
effects of the latest crash avoidance technology.
|
Assessment
|
|
|
|
Ankle injury assessment
considering human diversity
|
University of Virginia
& Michigan Medicine
|
How can we use test
dummies to predict differences in injury risk among the diverse
driver population?
|
Leveraging the Total
Human Model for Safety (THUMS) and a new tool developed with a
previous CSRC project, collaborators will simulate hundreds of
combinations of body shape and crash characteristics, matching
these same conditions with virtual dummies to guide new safety
assessment tests.
|
Injury prediction in
side impact virtual assessments
|
University of
Virginia
|
How can digital humans
be used for safety assessments in side impact crash
scenarios?
|
Research collaborators
will develop relationships between measures of deformation in human
models such as Toyota's Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) to
standardize a process for predicting rib fractures in near- and
far-side impacts for potential virtual assessments.
|
Predicting whiplash
injury using parametric digital humans
|
University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)
|
How can digital humans
be used to consider effects of population diversity in rear impact
crash injury?
|
Leveraging previous
CSRC efforts on parametric human body models, researchers will use
clinical imaging to understand neck anatomic variation and update
Toyota's Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) to guide future
safety innovations and virtual assessments for diverse
populations.
|
Lumbar spine Injury
prediction with crash test dummies
|
University of
Virginia
|
How can future crash
test tools be enhanced to better assess lumbar spine injury in
crashes?
|
Leveraging previous
CSRC efforts to understand the lumbar spine biomechanics,
researchers will use digital simulations of humans and dummies at
the component level and in simulated crash conditions to develop
and validate a new lumbar spine injury prediction measure for use
in future crash assessments.
|
Anthropometry of
pregnant drivers for future crash safety assessment
|
University of British
Columbia
|
How do expectant
mothers position themselves while driving?
|
Researchers will
collect detailed 3D body shape and posture data from approximately
500 pregnant females with automotive seats and seat belts to
understand potential areas for future safety innovations
|
Further, CSRC released summaries of fourteen recently completed
projects, which are available for download and review HERE.
Toyota created CSRC in 2011 to advance safety for the industry
as a whole through open collaborations with universities, hospitals
and other research institutions. Results are published and openly
presented for others to utilize and benefit from the research.
With these new initiatives, CSRC now has completed or commenced
116 research projects with more than 30 different institutions.
CSRC results are regularly published in prestigious scientific
journals and presented at world-renowned conferences, meetings, and
directly with key stakeholders. Through these outreach efforts, the
projects have made meaningful contributions to help advance
research and technology relating to the safe integration of future
mobility solutions for all.
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in
North America for more than 65
years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation
mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than
1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs more than 63,000 people in North America who have contributed to the
design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 47 million cars and
trucks at our 12 manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota's 13th plant
in North Carolina will begin to
manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With
more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker,
Toyota currently offers 29 electrified options.
For more information about Toyota, visit
www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
About TMNA R&D
For more than 50 years, Toyota Motor North America Research
& Development (TMNA R&D) has led engineering for several of
the best-selling Toyota vehicles on U.S. roads. Teams are now
creating both next-generation vehicles and new and advanced
mobility concepts that can better move people, goods and
information. Toyota's innovation has produced more patents from the
United States Patent and Trademark Office than any other automaker
for the past 10 consecutive years (2,667 in 2023). Centered in
Ann Arbor, Michigan, TMNA R&D
is pursuing Toyota's mission to "Produce Happiness for All" by
making life safer, easier and more enjoyable. Globally, Toyota
spends approximately $1 million per
hour on R&D to ensure that Toyota rapidly and continuously
develops cutting-edge, high-quality, and appealing vehicles.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Rick Bourgoise
richard.bourgoise@toyota.com
Olivia Boisineau-Beckett
olivia.boisineau-beckett@toyota.com
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