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THE SMARTEST CARS VIDEO PROJECT
(SCVP) funded by the European Commission is producing a high quality television documentary to raise public awareness of eSafety systems... Read more >>

WAKE UP! ATTENTION MONITORING
GAINING TRACTION
After years of research, the car industry has found a way to warn drivers they’re getting drowsy – well ahead of crossing into the danger zone. Read more >>

Technologies

ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL (ACC)

Want to try "foot free" driving? Cruise control has been around for ages, but on most highways today, we are constantly fiddling with our cruise control settings to accommodate someone slower ahead. ACC enables your vehicle to react on its own - it keeps your set speed; if a slower vehicle is ahead, it "sees" it and will slow your car down and automatically match that speed, while maintaining a safe gap between you and the guy ahead. In these situations, your car is a "car follower" and you can set the gap you're comfortable with. If that slower vehicle moves out of your lane, or if you change lanes, and the way ahead is clear, your car accelerates back to the set speed. ACC is a "convenience system," and users say it really reduces the stress of driving on long trips.

"Stop and Go" ACC is a newer version which can take care of the pedals in irritating stop-and-go traffic situations on the highway, and also car-follow on regular streets. If the car ahead stops at a traffic signal for instance, your car gently stops behind it.

ACC has some limits designed in for safety. If the car ahead brakes really hard, your ACC (which has limited "braking authority") will brake but also warn you that you need to intervene as well. Also, when your car automatically follows another car to a stop, it waits for you to tap the gas pedal before starting up again - invoking your situational awareness to make sure it is safe to start up again.

How does it work? ACC uses radar or infrared sensors to detect other vehicles ahead of your vehicle. While you're in the cruise mode, ACC automatically regulates the accelerator and brakes to maintain a safe following distance in traffic.

Why It's Important

ACC changes your driving experience, making it a lot less tedious.

MANUFACTURERS

AUDI
BMW
DAIMLER
FIAT
FORD
HONDA
NISSAN
RENAULT
TOYOTA
VOLKSWAGEN
VOLVO CARS

ADAPTIVE LIGHTING

When approaching a curve when driving at night, your headlights merely light up the forest or field ahead, when what you really want to see is the road ahead, around the curve. This is the job of dynamic bending light (also called adaptive lighting) - as you turn the steering wheel in entering the curve, the headlights are steering in that direction, so you know "what's around the bend. "

MANUFACTURERS

BMW
RENAULT

ATTENTION MONITORING

MANUFACTURERS

MERCEDES
TOYOTA
VOLVO CARS

Lane departure warning will detect the "end state" of drowsiness, where you're wandering all over the road half-asleep. But to catch this situation much earlier, so that hopefully it doesn't become life threatening, driver monitoring exists to detect the early indicators of drowsiness. Researchers have experimented extensively with cameras pointed at driver's faces, which look for eyeblink patterns correlated to early signs of drowsiness - but this hasn't been perfected yet. Meanwhile, car-makers have figured out how to assess your "lane keeping performance" to estimate your level of fatigue - over time, your "lane wander" increases gradually, and the same computer that can tell if you're about to leave the lane can track these small variations. If you're moving towards the danger threshold, a warning is given to the driver.

BRAKE ASSIST (BA)

Brake assist is an aid to effective braking. Most drivers don't apply enough force on the brake pedal when they are trying to avoid a crash - they may think they're braking "hard" but its only a portion of the total braking available. Brake assist uses a simple technique to detect this emergency situation - sensors detect when the foot is rapidly lifted off the accelerator pedal and immediately applies the brakes. This only happens when you're trying to avoid hitting something - so the brake assist kicks in when this situation is detected and automatically boosts the braking force to the max to help avoid the crash as much as possible.

Why It's Important

Since we don't encounter crash situations every day, we're likely to "do it wrong. "We almost never hit the brakes full force, so we're not prepared to do it in an emergency. BA compensates for our tentativeness to save the day.

MANUFACTURERS

BMW
DAIMLER
NISSAN
TOYOTA

BLIND SPOT MONITORING (BSM)

ALSO KNOWN AS "LANE CHANGE ASSIST"

In every lane change on a highway, we’re never quite sure if there’s somebody just to the side of us that we don't see - until its too late. If they're there and we're lucky, all that happens is some angry honking. Worst case? Either they or you (or both) crash. With a radar or camera embedded on the side of the car (maybe hidden in the side mirror assembly), that left side blind spot can be monitored. Typically, the driver has an icon somewhere near the left side mirror, which shows green, yellow, or red depending on whether that adjacent lane is clear, occupied, or you're moving into it and towards a crash.

In high speed Autobahn situations, it is not enough to only monitor that area next to your car. If a car is approaching at 110 mph and you are going 60 mph, they can progress from being a barely detectable faraway speck in your side mirror to hurtling past you in only a few seconds. For this situation, LCA uses radar pointed backwards up the road and looking long range for any such threats. The radar can detect that car and measure its speed, and feed that information to the car computer to calculate when the car is in your danger zone, based on your speed. Warnings are issued appropriately.

Why It's Important

A common emotional "hit" we all want to avoid is that bad feeling when we ease over into the other lane and get the loud "honk" from the guy you just encroached on. Its nice to have a way to avoid that more frequent event, as well as the less frequent crashes.

MANUFACTURERS

AUDI
BMW
FORD
MERCEDES
NISSAN
VOLVO CARS

ECALL

"Automatic Crash Reporting"

When you're injured in a crash, the speed of emergency responders arriving to give you the necessary medical care plays a huge role in your recovery time, or even whether you live or die. But if you're unconscious, how can you call for help? Cars equipped with eCall automatically detect that a crash has occurred and provide the crash location and basic vehicle data to emergency services (via a cell phone integrated in the car).

The European Commission is vigorously pursuing a campaign for individual European countries (Member States) to implement the necessary data interface to eCall throughout their emergency services call centers.

In parallel, the car companies are offering advanced e-Call services based on strong public demand. Here, the emergency call is routed to a call center under contract to the car company (paid for by your subscription fees for the service). These services provide a very rich data set, including how many people are in the car, impact velocity, impact location (front, side, etc. ), driver blood type, and more.

eCall is a simple concept that is complex to implement -- it requires coordinated action and standards across several players - public safety organizations, telecom companies, service providers,and car manufacturers. So far, 14 Member States have agreed to implement eCall.

Why It's Important

When you're disoriented, helpless, or worse after a crash, a phone call has already been made on your behalf to the paramedics and police - they're on the way.

MANUFACTURERS

BMW
DAIMLER
PEUGEOT/CITROEN
VOLVO CARS

ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC)

"Anti-skid control"

ESC sensors constantly compare where you want to go with where your car is actually going. ESC automatically compensates by braking individual wheels. It immediately helps straighten the car out, so you stay on track.

ESC can be thought of as an anti-skid or anti-swerve system. It helps you maintain stability and control while braking and accelerating and especially during cornering, and driving through twists and turns. ESC uses a series of sensors to analyze steering-wheel activity, wheel speeds, acceleration and your vehicle's yaw. (Yaw is the rotation of the vehicle around its vertical axis. ) When a difference is detected between the driver's intended course and the vehicle's actual course, the vehicle is oversteering (fishtailing, spinning out) or understeering (plowing, pushing) and losing control.

Why It's Important

You never know what you'll be faced with in the next moment on the road - if you suddenly have to swerve, you might lose control of the car and crash or be killed. Most people have no idea of the severe forces they will encounter in a spin or rollover. The good news? In a world where safety improvements of a few percent are considered a success, ESC boasts fatality reduction numbers of 30% and higher.

MANUFACTURERS

AUDI
BMW
DAIMLER
FIAT
FORD
HONDA
NISSAN
RENAULT
TOYOTA
VOLKSWAGEN
VOLVO CARS

COLLISION WARNING (FCW)

Some cars with Adaptive Cruise Control offer FCW as an enhancement. Adaptive Cruise Control has an off/on switch, but FCW is always enabled. If a car ahead brakes suddenly, an urgent warning is issued to grab the driver's attention which ideally will cause them to hit the brakes.

Why It's Important

Want to avoid a fender bender? You may not die or even get hurt in these crashes, but you get an airbag in your face, repair bills, and increased insurance premiums. By the way, how much traffic congestion would go away if all the cars had FCW and the fender-benders stopped happening?

FCW also helps in the higher speed crashes, to give you that extra second or so to react, which could be the difference between being "shaken up" or being in the hospital for the next month.

How It Works

FCW uses radar to calculate the proximity to other vehicles; and if the gap gets small or the closing speed is too high the system will warn you on the instrument cluster. Audible and visual warnings are used. Once a forward-looking radar is on a car, Brake Assist Plus can be implemented. BA-plus came out on the 2006 Mercedes S-Class cars.

If an impending collision is likely (based on the radar data)the system will calculate the optimal braking power to avoid the accident in a fraction of a second, and as soon as the brake pedal is applied by the driver - even lightly - the optimal braking is immediately applied thus avoiding the (otherwise probable) accident. The BAS Plus system has been shown to significantly reduce the incidence of rear-end collisions.

MANUFACTURERS

BMW
DAIMLER
HONDA
NISSAN
TOYOTA
VOLVO CARS

CURVE SPEED WARNING

Today’s in-car navigation systems are a superb means of getting to your destination efficiently. Now, next generation digital maps are becoming even more accurate so that they know the precise curvature of the upcoming road. Most curves are fairly benign, but we’ve all been surprised by a curve that was sharper than expected, or was just over a hill – we weren’t prepared and had to brake hard just to stay on the road – in the best case. In the worst cases, this type of situation can cause road departure crashes. Curve Speed Warning uses the on-board map to “look around the bend” and calculate the risk factor of entering that next curve at the speed your car is currently traveling – if the risk is high, your car gives you a heads-up to slow down and pay attention in approaching that curve.

Why It’s Important
Curve Speed Warning extends our awareness beyond what’s visible ahead of us on the road – leading to fewer surprises – and fewer crashes.

FORWARD COLLISION MITIGATION (FCM)

"Automatic Emergency Breaking"

If the car's sensor can "see" a collision about to happen, why not hit the brakes immediately? Why wait for the driver's relatively slow reaction time? That's the idea here. The driver first receives increasingly urgent warnings, but if there's no response and the crash is imminent, brakes are automatically applied full force.
This may not avoid the collision but it reduces the crash velocity. Why not hit the brakes sooner to avoid the crash all the time?The driver's situational awareness is much greater than the radar's - plus they have a range of avoidance actions. What if they decide to swerve rather than brake? You don't want the brakes to slam on if you're trying to steer out of the way. So this system waits until the driver cannot possibly avoid the crash and then activates the emergency braking.

Full "collision avoidance" systems do exist which are designed for relatively low-speed city driving. Here, if a collision is imminent, automatic brakes stop the car before contact.

Why It's Important

If you're bearing down on someone you don't see because you're distracted, sure, it's nice to get a warning - but even better for your car to hit the brakes for you.

MANUFACTURERS

HONDA
MERCEDES
TOYOTA
VOLVO CARS

INTERSECTION COLLISION AVOIDANCE

Accidents at intersections are deadly. They happen when drivers perform the wrong moves, fail to anticipate other drivers’ actions, or miss road signs or signals. Intersection Collision Avoidance uses advanced sensor systems and software algorithms so that the vehicle knows where it is in the intersection and also predicts the path of other road users – cars, pedestrians, bikes, etc. This is all combined with status of the traffic signal (green, yellow, red) so drivers can be warned if they (or someone on the cross street) are not heeding the red signal.

In the PReVENT research project, sponsored by the European Commission, engineers created a “Traffic Light Assistant” system as well as an “Intersection Assistant” for stop sign situations. Drivers were warned if they were ignoring a red light or stop sign, or if someone else was illegally moving through the intersection and about to hit them if they continued through the intersection. The system could also help drivers make a left turn at an intersection, by warning if there was someone coming up fast, so that the available time was not enough to make the turn.

Why It’s Important

Although still several years away, Intersection Collision Avoidance gives us another layer of protection against being hit by someone else.

LANE DEPARTURE WARNING (LDW)

LDW helps you avoid dangerous drifting out of your lane. It uses a sophisticated camera and an image processing system to detect the lane markings on the road ahead and know where your car is relative to the lane edge. If you're about to inadvertently leave the lane (no turn signal), LDW automatically warns you with an alarm sound or by vibrating your seat. LDW is useful when you're distracted and can even help if you're starting to get drowsy.

Why It's Important

Everybody gets distracted while driving - even if you abstain from text-messaging while driving, there's the coffee cup, conversations in the car, looking at maps, etc. So we do cross lane lines - usually a benign event. But not always, which is why LDW is a very useful back-up.

MANUFACTURERS

AUDI
BMW
PEUGEOT/CITROEN
NISSAN
TOYOTA
VOLKSWAGEN
VOLVO CARS

LANE DEPARTURE PREVENTION (LDP)

LDP goes a step beyond Lane Departure Warning to automatically control your car and keep it in the lane for a few seconds while you re-orient to the situation and take whatever action is needed. After all, if you're dealing with the screaming children in the backseat and unknowingly start to head for the guardrail, by the time you understand a warning it may be too late. LDP keeps you safely in the lane for this reason.

Depending on the manufacturer, LDP either controls the steering directly, or applies precise pulses to brakes on individual wheels to "steer" (much like dipping a paddle on the front/back or right/left of a canoe steers). What about an emergency situation? If you need to suddenly change lanes, the force for the "prevention" function is quite small and easily overcome. It feels a bit like driving over small bumps on the white lines as you change lanes.

Why It's Important

LDP works in parallel with your own steering to help you stay in the lane, but won't interfere is you want to get out.

MANUFACTURERS

FIAT
HONDA
MERCEDES
NISSAN
VOLKSWAGEN

NIGHT VISION

Car headlights are a narrow pencil-beam of light intended to look down the road a given distance. They can't illuminate the entire scene ahead without blinding oncoming drivers. Sometimes this means you cannot see threats or obstacles on the road while driving at night. Furthermore, when cars are coming at you, you're somewhat blinded by their lights - for a moment, you can't see the your road edge as well, and you might barely miss a pedestrian.

Night vision systems use infrared energy as a "floodlight" because it cant be seen by the human eye and thus is not a problem for other drivers. Since you cant see it either, a special camera picks up the infrared light and converts it to visible light on a dashboard or heads-up display. Your view of the road ahead goes much farther than typical headlights, giving you a better sense for the road situation when driving. In addition to seeing people and bicycles, it can also be a huge help in seeing deer or other animals near the road who might dart out in front of you.

Why It's Important

We're all a little more tense driving at night - night vision expands our awareness and allows us to feel more secure driving at night.

MANUFACTURERS

BMW
MERCEDES

PEDESTRIAN DETECTION

Hitting another person with your car is one of the nightmare scenarios for any driver. Recent European regulations have required car-makers to redesign their front-ends to make them more pedestrian-friendly, including features such as energy absorbent hoods. Ultrasonic sensors are now used to sense that a vehicle is within milliseconds of a pedestrian hit and thus activate the energy absorbent hood just a bit earlier to reduce injuries.

The next phase is to avoid the pedestrian completely, and new systems using cameras and image processing can detect a pedestrian in harm's way and warn the driver. It is one of the most challenging tasks in crash avoidance, because people and cars operate in such close proximity - a pedestrian safely on the pavement can choose to cross the street (while absorbed in a cell phone conversation) and become a potential crash victim within only a second or two. A pedestrian detection system must be able to tell the difference, or else risk annoying the driver with warnings about non-threats.

Why It's Important

There are always at least two tragedies in a pedestrian crash - first and most crucial is the injuries to the pedestrian. Less obvious is the trauma experienced by the driver, to have actually hit a fellow human being with their car. No matter whose fault it is, a pedestrian crash creates suffering all around. Buying a pedestrian detection system on your next car can prevent this suffering.

MANUFACTURERS

BMW
TOYOTA

WIRELESS LOCAL DANGER WARNING

Imagine if cars could talk to each other. If they could, then a car ahead of you could see a problem on the road – such as a disabled vehicle – and “email” your car about the danger and exactly where it is. Even if that hazard is around the bend, you would know about it a few seconds ahead of time and be alert so as to respond appropriately. This is the promise of Wireless Local Danger Warning and other “talking car” features that are now being developed by the car industry, with support from the European Commission.

Why It’s Important

Wireless communications enables us to extend our “information horizon” so that we are ready for situations that we cant see yet.

NEWS

WAKE UP! ATTENTION MONITORING...

Wake Up! Attention Monitoring Gaining Traction

After years of research, the car industry has found a way to warn drivers they’re getting drowsy – well ahead of crossing into the danger zone.

The danger of nodding off at the wheel (the "one-second nap") is well known to the safety experts. Their studies have shown, for instance, that long holiday journeys without intermediate breaks involve a high risk of overtiredness, the signs of which drivers often fail to notice in time. In fact, studies indicate that around 25 per cent of all serious accidents occurring on motorways are caused by overtired drivers. During long-distance trips in the dark, or under monotonous driving conditions, the risk of the "one-second nap" is greatest. Reaction times of drivers can be 50 per cent longer after only four hours of non-stop driving. The risk of an accident is doubled after this length of time, and after six hours of driving it is eight times as high.

Researchers have experimented extensively with cameras pointed at driver’s faces, which look for eye-blink patterns correlated to early signs of drowsiness – but this hasn’t been perfected yet. Meanwhile, car-makers have figured out how to assess your “lane keeping performance” to estimate your level of fatigue – over time, your “lane wander” increases gradually, and on-board computers can track these small variations. Even the way the driver operates the pedals plays into the equation. If you’re moving towards the danger threshold, a warning is given to the driver.

How does the car know? Data from a small forward-looking camera, placed near the rear-view mirror, is processed to extract the white lane lines in the image – from this lane-tracking performance is measured.

Volvo was first to market with their “Driver Alert Control” system, and Mercedes will make their “Attention Assist” system available in 2009 models.

BEYOND WARNINGS: NISSAN UNVEILS TWO WORLD FIRSTS

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. has unveiled an All-Around Collision Free prototype incorporating two all-new technologies – Side Collision Prevention (SCP) and Back-up Collision Prevention (BCP). Previous versions of these systems in the auto industry have been limited to warnings only – but Nissan has taken the next step to activate automated braking when needed to avoid a crash. More inside….

Since Nissan already has introduced Distance Control Assist (DCA) and Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) systems, this latest prototype vehicle further extends Nissan’s “Safety Shield” concept.

Side Collision Prevention: When the driver decides to change lanes, the side-mounted sensors activates a warning if an approaching vehicle is detected in the drivers intended lane. A yaw mechanism is then activated through brake control of individual wheels, to help prevent a potential collision.

Back-up Collision Prevention: During a reversing maneuver, rear and side-mounted sensors detect objects in the path of the vehicle. If an object is detected an alarm sounds followed by the activation of the brakes, to help avoid a collision in situations such as when a vehicle is backing out of a parking space.

The DCA helps maintain an adequate following distance, while the LDP helps to prevent the vehicle from veering off its designated driving lane. Both the DCA and LDP systems complement the SCP and BCP to create the All-Around Collision Free prototype. The warning system and pre-emptive safety features are designed to help support the driver in an intuitive manner with minimal intervention.

On a global level, Nissan is committed to build safer vehicles equipped with advanced safety technologies. In Japan, the company’s safety vision is to halve the number of traffic fatalities or serious injuries involving Nissan vehicles by 2015 compared with the level in 1995.

Side Collision Prevention

Back-up Collission Prevention

Distance Control Assist

Lane Departure Prevention

2009 AUDI AVANT BOASTS ACTIVE SAFETY OPTIONS

The 2009 Audi Avant has adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and blind spot warning available. as options.

Adaptive Cruise Control

Lane Departure Warning

Blind Spot Warning

VOLKSWAGEN STEPS UP TO LANE ASSISTANCE

VW’s Passat CC is loaded with functions such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Park Assist, Front Scan, and "Lane Assist."
VW describes their Lane Assist system as follows: “This active lane keeping system on the Passat CC is unique worldwide in this vehicle class. It automatically counter-steers as soon as the Passat CC leaves its lane unintentionally; a genuine gain in convenience and safety.

About 14 percent of all accidents involving injuries are caused by the vehicle leaving its driving lane. Lane Assist will contribute to reducing this accident rate. By the way, if the driver sets the turn signal to intentionally change lanes, Lane Assist does not intervene.”

“The Passat CC is the first car in the world to offer a lane keeping assistant, the new Lane Assist. The system developed by Volkswagen has the capability of assisting with a corrective steering intervention that helps to keep the car in its lane. Of course, the system does not relieve drivers of their responsibility for diligent control of the vehicle.

The system is activated via the multifunctional display on the Passat CC. The driver selects the system under the menu item Lane Assist to activate it. As long as the driver does not deactivate the system, from that point forward Lane Assist takes effect starting at a speed of 65 km/h. Lane Assist detects lane markings via a camera in the vicinity of the inside mirror or rain sensor. It does not matter whether the lines are continuous or broken as in the case of a center stripe. Lane Assist also operates in darkness or fog. However, the system does not work when lane markings are not discernible.”

“Once Lane Assist has been activated, the driver is informed by a yellow indicator symbol in the shape of a lane in the instrument cluster. As soon as the camera has located the proper lane markings, the symbol lights green. Now the system is fully active. As soon as the system indicates that the car is leaving the ideal line, Lane Assist counters by steering in the opposite direction.

Decisive here: counter-steering is very continuous and gentle. If drivers take their hands off the steering wheel completely, the system detects this and issues a warning, both acoustic and by vibration, to request that the driver resume control, and then the system switches itself off.”
“The driver can override the Lane Assist steering with very little force.”
“Lane Assist was developed as a convenience technology for freeway driving and drives on well-maintained country highways. The system has the potential for avoiding accidents in certain situations as well. The reason: about 14 percent of all single-car accidents with injuries involve leaving a road lane.”

2010 MERCEDES BENZ E-CLASS: LOADED WITH ACTIVE SAFETY

Mercedes’ new E-Class, to be available mid-summer 2009 for around $55,000, will boast their new drowsy driver monitoring system, plus lane assist, blind spot assist, night view assist, and radar-assisted braking systems which were first made available on the S-Class.

Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Diamler AG, in a recent speech said the drowsiness assist “is the next best thing to handing the driver an expresso” and noted the symbol on the instrument panel which alerts the driver is a coffee cup.

Lane Assist

Blind Spot Assist

Night View Assist

Radar-Assisted Braking

Attention Monitoring

ARE YOU THE PERFECT DRIVER?

It Won’t Help – You’re Still Vulnerable on the Road.

Everyday the roads seem to become more chaotic. Drivers are not humanly capable of seeing all that needs to be observed to create a zero risk of a crash. In fact, with cars we have out-paced our biology – the human sensing and nervous system evolved to handle, at a maximum, the rate of change that happens while running down a steep hill. We drive our cars five times faster than that. The injuries incurred from a fall on that hill are unpleasant, but the injuries at highway speeds are massive by comparison. In spite of significant crash protection technology, we still experience over 40,000 people dying each year on the roads in Europe.

A new day appears to be dawning, focused on crash avoidance rather than just crash protection. Massive computing power can now be cheaply installed in today’s cars, along with hi-tech sensors like radar, lasers and cameras. While not as smart as your brain, these sensors and computers never get tired or distracted. They are looking in every direction while you only look in one place at a time.

While the first systems have been around for about a decade, the pace of introducing these systems is starting to explode. Now available are collision warning systems, automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, night vision and lane departure prevention.

No matter how smart the system, an alert, attentive human is always the better driver. So when possible warnings are issued to allow the driver to take the right actions – but when there’s not enough time, or the driver is not responding, these systems can operate the brakes and steering to keep you out of harm’s way.

DOWNLOADS

BMW - DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS
ENGLISH - DOWNLOAD PDF
GERMAN - DOWNLOAD PDF

DAIMLER-DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS
ENGLISH - DOWNLOAD PDF
GERMAN - DOWNLOAD PDF

Thinking Cars Trailer

Thinking Cars TV Documentary – watch the trailer! Click the button above "Watch the video"

Thinking Cars is being produced by H3B Media as part of the Smartest Cars Video Project, funded by the European Commission Information Society and Media Directorate. The documentary highlights the reality of road crashes and the sophisticated active safety technology now available that can prevent or mitigate these crashes. Thinking Cars is expected to be broadcast within Europe in 2010. For more information on the project and the technologies CLICK HERE

SURVEY

DOCUMENTARY

THE SMARTEST CARS VIDEO PROJECT

The Smartest Cars Video Project (SCVP) is producing a high quality television video documentary to raise public awareness of eSafety systems via mass media broadcasting. The need for such television documentaries is emphasized in the European Commission's 2010 Intelligent Car Initiative. SCVP supports the Commission’s goal of halving road fatalities by 2010 - as more people learn about and purchase active safety on their next car, the roads get safer for everyone.

Under the working title of “Thinking Cars,” the TV program (two one-hour shows) will be engaging, entertaining, and educational for the everyday TV viewer. It is intended to be shown on the major television channels throughout Europe. Against the backdrop of “the quest” for crash-free driving, Thinking Cars poses provocative questions that are on the minds of viewers (and car buyers) about safety technology – do the systems work? can the systems be trusted? Why should I buy active safety if I’m already a good driver? We address the ability of active safety technology to make up for the driver’s human limitations, at the same time respecting the driver’s intentions for control of their automobile.

Creation of Thinking Cars includes consultation with the vehicle industry, road operators, and other eSafety stakeholders through our Industry Advisory Council.

The project coordinator, H3B Media, is the production company for Smartest Cars. The H3B team includes experts in ITS media, intelligent vehicles, and documentary filmmaking. Administrative support is provided by Ian Catling Consultancy in association with Transport Logic Ltd.

Executive Producers:
Luis Hill
Richard Bishop
Roxana Spicer

Director/Writer:
Roxana Spicer

Director of Photography:
Michael Ellis

Management Consultant:
Mike Hayward

VIDEOS

Coming Soon

Home

Technologies

ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL (ACC)

MANUFACTURERS

ADAPTIVE LIGHTING

MANUFACTURERS

ATTENTION MONITORING

MANUFACTURERS

BRAKE ASSIST (BA)

MANUFACTURERS

BLIND SPOT MONITORING (BSM)

MANUFACTURERS

ECALL

ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC)

MANUFACTURERS

COLLISION WARNING (FCW)

MANUFACTURERS

CURVE SPEED WARNING

FORWARD COLLISION MITIGATION (FCM)

MANUFACTURERS

INTERSECTION COLLISION AVOIDANCE

LANE DEPARTURE WARNING (LDW)

MANUFACTURERS

LANE DEPARTURE PREVENTION (LDP)

MANUFACTURERS

NIGHT VISION

PEDESTRIAN DETECTION

MANUFACTURERS

WIRELESS LOCAL DANGER WARNING

NEWS

WAKE UP! ATTENTION MONITORING...

BEYOND WARNINGS: NISSAN UNVEILS TWO WORLD FIRSTS

2009 AUDI AVANT BOASTS ACTIVE SAFETY OPTIONS

VOLKSWAGEN STEPS UP TO LANE ASSISTANCE

2010 MERCEDES BENZ E-CLASS: LOADED WITH ACTIVE SAFETY

ARE YOU THE PERFECT DRIVER?

DOWNLOADS

Thinking Cars Trailer

Thinking Cars TV Documentary – watch the trailer! Click the button above "Watch the video"

SURVEY

DOCUMENTARY

THE SMARTEST CARS VIDEO PROJECT

VIDEOS

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