ADAPTIVE DRIVING BEAM FOR FAR GREATER DRIVER NIGHTTIME VISIBILITY REDUCES PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS – DEMONSTRATION WITH USE OF A SIMULATION PROGRAM

摘要

To reduce the numbers of pedestrian accidents at night, a new headlamp technology called Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB) is now being developed which changes the lighting area in accordance with the locations of other vehicles. ADB is an innovative technology that can reduce the glare to the driver of an oncoming vehicle, or a preceding vehicle, and can also detect pedestrians along the road with its bright lighting area. We examined how well this new technology could reduce the number of pedestrian accidents by using the ASSESS (A Survey Simulator to Evaluate Safety Systems) simulation program that we have been developing. In this study, three different headlight conditions were used in the simulation: high-beam pattern, low-beam pattern and the ADB. Based on the traffic accident data in Japan, we selected patterns of pedestrian accidents on a straight road without traffic signals at night. It is expected that the far greater driver visibility provided by the ADB, compared with low-beam lighting, would significantly reduce the number of pedestrian accidents at night. We also found that restricting vehicle velocity to under about 30 km/h would be another effective measure to prevent pedestrian accidents.