Classi ® cation of driver - assistance systems according to their impact on road safety and tra c e ciency

The aim was to examine driver-assistance systems that seem to have a considerable potential for road safety and tra c e ciency improvement, and to propose an impact-oriented classi®cation of these systems. A broad overview of a series of driver-assistance systems under development or in some cases already available is presented and it identi®es the basic characteristics of each system and its expected impact on tra c e ciency and road safety. The latter is assessed on the basis of appropriate evaluation criteria. Expert judgement and literature evidence available are used in this context. This impact approach, in contrast with the usually adopted user or system-oriented approaches, allows for more appropriate identi®cation of the priorities in the ®eld of future research, development and promotion of driver-assistance systems. The proposed classi®cation allocates the driver-assistance systems in four diVerent categories on the basis of whether tra c e ciency and safety impact are high or low. This categorization reveals that 40% of the systems considered are expected to have a high safety and low tra c-e ciency impact, while only 15% is expected to have both impacts high.