Injury crash reduction of low‐speed autonomous emergency braking (AEB) on passenger cars

Low-speed Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) is a safety system designed to support passenger car drivers to avoid or mitigate the consequences of rear-end crashes, mostly in urban road environments. This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of this technology in reducing real-life crashes, based on Swedish police-reported injury crashes 2010-2014. Cars with standard AEB were compared with non-AEB cars from the same manufacturer as well as from others. Both groups were chosen to be of similar types and weights. The statistical analysis used odds ratio calculations with an induced-exposure approach. In this case, striking rear-end crashes were considered sensitive to AEB. The non-sensitive crash types used in the analysis were struck rear-end crashes as well as all crossing crashes. Only two-car collisions were included. The results showed that the reduction of striking rear-end crashes in 50 km/h speed areas ranged between 54% and 57%. The reduction of all striking rear-end crashes, regardless of speed area, ranged between 35% and 41%. These findings were in line with previous research, although of greater magnitude as the striking and the struck car could be identified and separated. However, it should be noted that the present study calculated the overall benefits of AEB, in terms of both crash avoidance and injury mitigation.