Decision-making on when to brake and when to steer to avoid a collision

By either autonomously steering or braking, accidents can be avoided or mitigated by a number of active safety functions which are available on the market today. However, these functions are often tailored for specific accident types and for each type either braking or steering may be possible. This contribution considers an algorithm for threat assessment which can be used in general traffic situations not only to decide if an intervention is necessary to avoid an accident, but also to select which type of intervention, steering or braking. The algorithm is evaluated on four accident types: rear-end accidents showing how the appropriate intervention depends on the lateral offset between host vehicle and target vehicle; single-target straight crossing path collisions where the decision depends on the vehicles' speed; collision scenarios with oncoming vehicles; and finally situations where multiple obstacles need to be considered.