The automotive technology company Veoneer, Inc. (NYSE: VNE and SSE: VNE SDB), emotion3D, a leading pioneer in camera-based in-cabin monitoring software solutions, and AVL, a global leader in automotive development, testing and simulation, today announced their collaboration to develop the world’s first personalized and situation-aware restraint control technology system.
Current passive safety systems, such as airbags follow a ”few-sizes-fit-all” development approach and thus perform best for a small number of specified body physiques – the most common one is the “average male”: 175 cm, 78 kg. This is suboptimal for everybody who deviates from these averages – children, elderly people and even woman. A study conducted by the University of Virginia found that seatbelt-wearing female occupants are 73% more likely to suffer from serious injuries than seatbelt-wearing male occupants. As long as passive safety systems cannot distinguish between the occupant’s individual characteristics it is impossible to achieve optimal protection for everybody.
The “Smart-RCS” project is conducted within the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Fast Track to Innovation funding program.
Over the next 24 months, the project partners will develop an innovative restraint control system able to personalize the actions of passive safety systems in event of a crash. Using a 3D sensor for understanding the vehicle interior, the system will consider a wide range of relevant, personal and situational factors such as body physique, position and pose, weight and gender.
“Smart-RCS will provide personalized and situation-aware protection for everybody. This is an important step to increase safety for everyone in the car,” says Tom Herbert, Product Director at Veoneer.
“The project consortium combines all expertise required to build such a ground-breaking innovation and to make it ready for automotive production.” says Florian Seitner, CEO of emotion3D.
“The introduction of personalized restraint control systems will require to break new ground also in terms of testing and validation methodologies. “We at AVL are excited to contribute our technology and expertise in automotive testing and validation to this project.” says Theodor Sams, Head of Research and Innovation at AVL.
Click here to read the full press release.
Learn more on the official project website: www.smart-rcs.eu