Largest Government-Automaker Study Shows Forward Collision Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking Reduce Front-to-Rear Crashes By 50%

November 15, 2022 at 08:46 AM EST

Future Studies Set to Expand as Partnership Welcomes Ford

The Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS) released results of the largest government-automaker study to date about the real-world effectiveness of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in passenger vehicles.

The study shows that vehicles equipped with forward collision warning (FCW) and automatic emergency braking (AEB) reduced front-to-rear crashes by about half. In addition, AEB continues to perform well in all conditions, even when roadway, weather, and lighting conditions are not ideal. The study also shows that vehicles equipped with active intervention technologies that help drivers stay in their lane, such as lane keeping assistance (LKA) and lane centering assistance (LCA), are effective in reducing single-vehicle crashes that lead to serious injury.

“These emerging technologies can substantially reduce the number of crashes and improve safety outcomes,” said Tim Czapp, industry co-chair of the PARTS Governance Board and a senior manager at Stellantis. “Demonstrating industry’s proactive commitment, AEB is approaching standard deployment and with real-world effectiveness, is helping mitigate injuries and lives lost.”

PARTS, formed in 2018, is a voluntary partnership among automakers and the U.S. Department of Transportation to advance traffic safety through collaborative analysis of the real-world effectiveness of safety technologies. The strength of PARTS is in its scope, and in this first-of-its-kind, cross-industry study, participating auto manufacturers provided vehicle equipment data for 47 million 2015–2020 model year passenger vehicles. That data was paired with 12 million police-reported crashes from 13 states provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

“A crucial part of the safe system approach is making vehicles safer by leveraging innovation to prevent crashes and save lives on our nation’s roads,” said Ann Carlson, NHTSA’s acting administrator. “Public-private partnerships are yet another tool to help accelerate the development and adoption of life-saving technology to protect all road users.”

The automakers participating in PARTS at the time of the study included Honda, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Stellantis, Subaru, and Toyota. Together, these industry partners accounted for over 65% of the U.S. passenger vehicle market in 2021. Additionally, PARTS is announcing that Ford has now joined the partnership, bringing the total share of the market to almost 80%.

The not-for-profit MITRE Corporation operates PARTS as an independent third party. MITRE conducted the study of ADAS effectiveness at the direction of and in collaboration with the PARTS partners. The study assessed the effectiveness of six ADAS features in avoiding roadway crashes: FCW, AEB, pedestrian AEB, lane departure warning, LKA, and LCA. In future iterations of ADAS effectiveness research, PARTS will incorporate Ford models and seek to further expand its partnerships and dataset to study increasingly nuanced research questions.

More information about PARTS can be found at NHTSA.gov/PARTS. Access the PARTS report, Real-world Effectiveness of Model Year 2015–2020 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, at https://www.mitre.org/news-insights/publication/real-world-effectiveness-model-year-2015-2020-advanced-driver-assistance.

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