Investigating Large Truck Advanced Safety Systems: Examining the Research on

Effectiveness, Costs, and BenefitsMatt Camden

Senior Research Associate

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Center for Truck and Bus Safety

“Don’t learn safety by accident.”Moto of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, circa 1951

“Safety work is today recognized as an economic necessity. It is the study of the right way to do things.”Robert W. Campbell, 1st president of the National Safety Council

Presentation Overview

• This presentation we will explore:

What are automatic emergency braking systems, lane departure warning systems, video-based driver safety monitoring systems?

Do these systems improve safety?

Is there a societal benefit to implementing these safety systems?

Can fleets expect a return-on-investment (ROI) by installing these technologies?

Commercial Vehicle Crashes

• Rising crash rates• 475,000 total crashes

• 180,000 injuries

• 4,564 fatalities

• $118 billion

• 90% of all crashes are caused by behavioral errors or wrong decisions

• Possible Solution: advanced vehicle safety systems

Large Truck Advanced Safety Systems

• Use sensors or alerts to warn a driver of a possible collision

• May assume vehicle control

• Examples• Forward collision warning

• Automatic emergency braking

• Lane departure warning

• Lane keeping assist

• Electronic stability control

• Blind spot warning

• Onboard safety monitoring systems

Research on Advanced Safety Systems

• Most research has focused on light vehicles• Lack of heavy vehicle effectiveness data

• There is sufficient data for some safety systems to draw conclusions• Automatic emergency braking (AEB)

• Lane departure warning (LDW)

• Video-based onboard monitoring systems (OSM)

Automatic Emergency Braking

• Targets large truck striking, rear-end crashes

• Combines forward-looking sensors, driver alerts, and automatic vehicle braking• Always active

• Alerts driver to possible collision

• Higher potential for saving lives

Video: AEB Activation

Video: Car cut in

Video: False AEB Activation

Lane Departure Warning

• Targets sideswipes due to unintentional lane deviations and run-off-road crashes

• Vision-based system that monitors position within a lane• Usually based on lane markings

• Alerts driver if unintentionally deviates outside lane (no turn signal)

Video: Run off Road

Video: Center line crossing

Video-based OSM

• Targets preventable crashes due to behavioral errors or driver decisions

• In-vehicle video monitors and records driver performance• 1+ cameras

• Kinematic data plus video

• “flags” potential unsafe events

• Tool for driver coaching

Video: Internal distraction

Video: Reading

Video: Eating

Video: External distraction

Video: Inadequate surveillance

Video: Too Fast for Conditions

Video: Turning

Video: V2 critical reason

Are These Technologies Effective?

• Onboard safety system effectiveness evaluation• AEB and LDW

• Collected carrier-owned crash and vehicle data

• 14 carriers

• Over 151,000 truck-years of data

• 88,000 crashes

• Compared crash rates of trucks with systems to trucks without

Did equipped trucks have fewer crashes?

• AEB had 20% lower AEB-related crash rate

• LDW had a 48.4% lower LDW-related crash rate

Results similar to other empirical research but

Results lower than carrier reports

0.07

0.10.092

0.192

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0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

AEB LDW

CR

ASH

RA

TE

OBSS Cohort Non-OBSS Cohort

Video-Based OSM Effectiveness

• VTTI study• Naturalistic driving study

• 17 weeks

• 2 fleets, 100 drivers

• Monitor + driver coaching

• Compared involvement in safety-critical events before and after implementing the video-based OSM system

Were the effective?

The Societal Impact

• Estimated the societal benefits and costs of implementing AEB, LDW, and video-based OSM across the U.S.• AEB

• Effectiveness: prevent 16% to 28% of large truck striking rear-end crashes

• Cost: $2,500

• LDW• Effectiveness: prevent 30% to 47.8% sideswipes and run-off-roads

• Cost: $1,000

• Video OSM• Effectiveness: prevent 20% to 52.2% of preventable crashes due to driver behavior

• Cost: $525 hardware/installation + $40/mo service fee + driver/manager time for coaching

How many crashes could be prevented per year?

System PDO Injury Fatal

AEB (16% effective) 1,127 649 23

AEB (28% effective) 1,973 1,136 41

LDW (30% effective) 2,329 530 54

LDW (47.8% effective) 3,649 831 84

Video-OMS (20% effective) 12,424 3,214 85

Video-OMS (52.2% effective) 32,428 8,389 222

Are they cost effective to society?

• AEB• Retrofitting all trucks with $2,500 system: BCR $0.82 to $0.97

• Equipping new trucks with $2,500 system: BCR $1.43 to $1.70

• LDW• Retrofitting all trucks with $1,000 system: BCR $1.33 to $2.30

• Equipping new trucks with $1,000 system: BCR $2.14 to $3.94

• Video-based OSM• Retrofitting all trucks with $525+ system: BCR $1.72 to $4.51

• Equipping new trucks with $525+ system: BCR $2.40 to $5.47

Previous Research on ROI

• AEB• BCRs ranging from $1.39 to $5.83

• Payback period ranging from 9 to 37 months

• LDW• BCRs ranging from 4.95 to 14.69

• Payback period ranging from 4 to 12 months

• Video-Based OSM• No ROI study available

• Positive ROI claims

What about ROI for a fleet

• Considerations in the ROI calculations• Purchase costs

• Maintenance costs

• Training costs

• Crash costs

• Federal tax savings

• Mileage (e.g. exposure to crashes)

• Discount rate of today’s dollars

• Service life of technology/vehicle

• Technology financing

Customizable ROI Calculator: Costs

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Customizable ROI Calculator: Benefits

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Matt CamdenSr. Research Associate, Center for Truck and Bus Safety

mcamden@vtti.vt.edu540-231-1503