A conceptual framework for requirement specification and evaluation of active safety functions

Active safety functions intended to prevent vehicle crashes are becoming increasingly prominent in traffic safety. Successful evaluation of their effects needs to be based on a conceptual framework, i.e. agreed-upon concepts and principles for defining evaluation scenarios, performance metrics and pass/fail criteria. The aim of this paper is to suggest some initial ideas toward such a conceptual framework for active safety function evaluation, based on a central concept termed ‘situational control’. Situational control represents the degree of control jointly exerted by a driver and a vehicle over the development of specific traffic situations. The proposed framework is intended to be applicable to the whole evaluation process, from ‘translation’ of accident data into evaluation scenarios and definition of evaluation hypotheses, to selection of performance metrics and criteria. It is also meant to be generic, i.e. applicable to driving simulator and test track experiments as well as field operational tests.