ブックタイトルマツダ技報　2012 No.30

概要

マツダ技報　2012 No.30

特集:安全33マツダ技報No.30(2012)Rear Vehicle Monitoring, an Award Winning Safety FunctionChristian Schultze *1 Takashi Takemoto*2 Takashi Terano*3SummaryPassive safety technology has achieved a very high degree of perfection. In order to furtherreduce accidents, active safety technologies need to be introduced that avoid accidents rather thanmitigate them. Mazda Motor Corporation (hence Mazda) follows this approach to make its productsever safer, aiming for zero accidents.Mazda developed a safety function called Rear Vehicle Monitoring (hence RVM) that is able toassist the driver, warning him not only about invisible cars in the so-called blind spot of the vehicle,but also about cars that are approaching fast, leaving insufficient time for a safe lane change.RVM has been presented to the Euro NCAP consortium and the Euro NCAP Advanced Award hasbeen granted to Mazda for introducing RVM into most of its current passenger cars. This reportdescribes the background of this technology and the way to the award.1. Introduction 2.2 Lane changes as a critical driving manoeuvreLane change accidents happen frequently on multilane roads, mainly insufficient observation of lanes andmisjudgement of other vehicles’motion path cause them.Mazda developed Rear Vehicle Monitoring (RVM), aradar based technology that helps the driver detectvehicles in the blind spot and warns of fast approachingvehicles on the target lane.2. European accident analysis as a trigger for safetydevelopment2.1 Basic situationMazda has researched traffic situations and accidentcausation in order to find ways how to avoid accidents.High performance brake systems or electronic stabilitycontrol systems are found nearly paramount in carshelping to stay in a safe state. Beyond these basicaccident avoidance functions, Mazda searched for specificdriving scenes that frequently trigger accidents and howsafety functions could avoid them.On multi lane roads a typical scene can be found:Vehicles approach slower vehicles ahead, face an endingor a blocked lane or merge in from other roads usingspecial acceleration lanes.In order to continue the journey, a lane change needsto be executed. This can only be done, if no vehicle ispresent laterally to the“ego-vehicle”on the target laneand there is no vehicle that will occupy to this spacewithin a certain time.In order to assure this, the driver of the ego-vehicle,aiming at change lane, needs to check the target lane bya view into the side mirror. However vehicles can beinvisible in this mirror, if they are located in the so-calledblind spot. Therefore the driver should always executean over-the-shoulder view to confirm the vacant space. Ifvehicles are approaching from the rear, then the drivermust decide, if? a lane change still is possible, as the approachingcar has sufficient time to safely react or? the lane change should better not get executed inorder to avoid a potentially dangerous situation.*1Advanced Technology Engineering*2 Technology Planning Dept*3 Vehicle Systems Dept.Mazda Motor Europe―170―