At the Paris Motor Show on 1 October 2010 Honda was presented with one of the first Euro NCAP Advanced awards alongside other innovative safety innovations from 8 other car manufacturers. Honda’s CMBS technology has been recognized for being amongst the best safety innovations offering research-proven benefits by Euro NCAP.
Honda has been recognized for their Collision Mitigation Brake System (CMBS) a radar-based autonomous emergency braking system. Honda CMBS was the world’s first such system available on the market (2003) including the European market with the introduction of the Honda Legend in early 2005. Three Honda models have received the CMBS system since then. When the system senses that the car is likely to hit a moving or stationary vehicle or other metal obstacle ahead of the car the driver is alerted by haptic visual and audible warnings. When the system senses that a collision is still likely three sharp tugs are given on the seat belt and the car automatically starts to apply some braking. Finally when a collision is unavoidable CMBS tightens the front seat occupants’ seatbelts and applies a high level of braking force in order to reduce the impact speed. This braking can be supplemented by the driver up to the maximum capability of the car.
Euro NCAP Advanced is a Euro NCAP initiative in response to the rapid development of new ICT based safety technologies available when buying cars and for which there is currently no independent assessment. Euro NCAP Advanced is open to any technical system that has a demonstrable safety benefit whether it is primary secondary or tertiary as long as it is available as an option on one of the Euro NCAP tested cars and not already addressed by the current star rating.
What is the safety benefit?
CMBS is a system designed to help prevent collisions with vehicles travelling in the same direction. Several studies have shown that driver distraction or inattentiveness is a factor in the vast majority of accidents.
The system is aimed at alerting the driver to an imminent collision both at low speeds typical of urban driving and at higher speeds typical of rural roads and motorways.
By studying accident statistics in Germany and extending the figures to the broader European community Honda estimates that if all cars were fitted with CMBS around 19000 accidents could be avoided and some 153000 mitigated every year.
How was CMBS assessed?
Honda’s CMBS was one of the first systems to be submitted for evaluation under the newly established Euro NCAP Advanced initiative. Two main types of track tests were done by Honda to establish the effectiveness of CMBS both of them simulations of typical real world situations. Firstly to establish proper functionality of the system a test driver drove towards targets to determine whether or not the system reacted as intended. Secondly to determine the driver response to these warnings volunteers were deliberately distracted while following a dummy vehicle which suddenly braked. The volunteers were not aware that this dummy vehicle could be safely pulled out of harm’s way before a collision occurred. Volunteers could be used only once each in order to ensure that they did not anticipate the critical situation. This situation of surprise which is critical to measure the effectiveness of the system could be created by means of the EVITA test vehicle which was developed by the Technical University of Darmstadt – Germany. By combining the results of the functionality and efficacy tests Honda was able to estimate the effectiveness of the system in real-life situations.
Euro NCAP’s new assessment reflects Honda’s commitment to overall vehicle safety complimenting Honda’s long standing leadership role in pedestrian protection performance in vehicle compatibility when two vehicles of significantly different mass collide and various active safety systems such as CMBS as well as the first lane keeping assistance system for the European market and intelligent Night Vision. Honda will also expand the availability of such safety systems in its vehicle fleet in order to increase the market penetration.
Detailed information about all of the 2010 rewarded technologies their safety benefits and the related cars is now available on Euro NCAP’s website.
Link to original Article
http://www.ertico.com/honda-receives-euro-ncap-advanced-award-for-safety-innovation/
Original Publication Date: Mon 25 Oct 2010
