RESEARCH & EVALUATION
Vehicle Safety Research
Vehicle Safety
The Office of Vehicle Safety Research and supports U.S. DOT’s and NHTSA’s safety goals by conducting research and safety testing of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment.
NHTSA’s recently published vehicle safety reports are listed chronologically below.
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Potential Alternative Methodology for Evaluating Flammability of Interior Automotive MaterialsThe objective of the research presented in the report is to improve the repeatability and reproducibility of evaluating the flammability of interior materials that are difficult to test according to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 302, “Flammability of materials,” (e.g., rigid non-planar materials, parts smaller than the FMVSS 302 specimen size). This report describes the work plan tasks and final results of this research program. The work plan tasks included conducting literature review, characterizing vehicle fires by analyzing various sources of field data, conducting bench-scale and intermediate-scale testing of motor vehicle materials and equipment, and developing a test method and performance metrics with improved repeatability for evaluating material flammability. Additionally, the chemical composition and smoke toxicity of the materials tested was also evaluated. |
DOT HS 812 091 |
Opposing Traffic Safety Assist Draft Test Procedure ValidationThe report summarizes the use of five preliminary opposing traffic safety assist (OTSA) test scenarios, discusses the results from testing one commercially available vehicle, a 2017 Mercedes-Benz E300, equipped with OTSA, and provides general assessments of the scenarios and test devices used during research. |
DOT HS 812 918 |
An Approach for the Selection and Description of Elements Used to Define Driving ScenariosThis report reviews existing pre-crash scenario typologies and various proposed behavioral competencies in literature that may be relevant to automated driving systems (ADSs) and selects five example scenarios to facilitate exploration of elements that may be helpful in characterizing them. The selected scenarios were: rear-end scenario, lead vehicle lane change scenario, vulnerable road user scenario, crossing path scenario, and a merge scenario. From these five sample scenarios, scenario descriptions were created by first leveraging existing test track procedures when available and then modifying them such that they can be executed with ADSs. These scenario descriptions were broken down into five categories: initialization, environment, principal other vehicle, traffic, and subject vehicle status. For each one of these categories, the study targets identifying a preliminary list of elements necessary to describe the ground truth scenario information. |
DOT HS 813 073 |
Occupant Dynamics During Crash Avoidance ManeuversA 12-participant test-track study in a sedan, a minivan, and a pickup assessed head excursions across vehicles using two abrupt braking events, two lane changes, and turn-and-brake maneuvers. Forward head excursion was slightly smaller in the passenger car than in the other two vehicles. No explanation for this finding was apparent; the vehicle kinematics were similar. A larger study with 90 participants was then conducted using a passenger sedan and an SUV with a range of age and body size assigned to blocks of initial conditions. Factors investigated were seat position, foot placement, seat back recline angle, retractor locking, vehicle differences, and effects of leaning inboard on the console armrest or leaning forward while reaching. All 90 experienced two braking events, a right-going lane change, a left-going lane change, and a turn-and-brake maneuver. Overall, results suggest a range of occupant head locations can be produced by abrupt vehicle maneuvers. More research is needed to assess the robustness of occupant protection systems to this wide range of postures. |
DOT HS 812 997 |
Classification of Level 2 Vehicle Events Observed On Public RoadsThis report summarizes the data collected while operating three vehicles equipped with SAE automation level 2 driver assistance systems. Using cameras, driver-annotated video was recorded to document the systems’ availability and noteworthy operation. Notable events were classified into three categories: events where the vehicle terminated its automation level 2 system operation and transferred full control back to the driver (Type I), driving situations where the system remained in operation but satisfied certain classification criteria (Type II), and driving situations where either the driver performed a manual override to disengage the system, or the system automatically reestablished lane position after an unintended departure had occurred (Type III). |
DOT HS 812 980 |
Driver Expectations for System Control Errors, Engagement, and Crash Avoidance in Level 2 Driving Automation SystemsThis project investigated how driver expectations about Level 2 ADAS systems affect driver engagement and performance. Many vehicles available to consumers offer some level of automated driving functionality, but the capabilities of these vehicles vary widely among makes and models. Drivers may have preconceived expectations about how these driver assistance systems function. This project tested 96 participants in low- and high-capability SAE Level 2 vehicles. Participant training evaluated if driver was in agreement with the vehicles actual capabilities (high or low) or not (i.e., they were told the vehicle had highly functioning ADAS systems when it fact it only had low, or vice versa). Testing was conducted on both public roads and on the Virginia Smart Road test track. While on the test track, participants were asked t completed non-driving tasks while driving, and mid-way through the driving session experienced a surprise event (crash imminent scenario). |
DOT HS 812 982 |
FMVSS Considerations for Vehicles with Automated Driving Systems: Phase I, Volume 2Included in this second volume are 18 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) research findings, including the performance requirements and test procedures, in terms of options regarding technical translations, based on potential regulatory barriers identified for compliance verification of innovative new vehicle designs that may appear in vehicles equipped with Automated Driving Systems (ADSs). This report builds on work in the Volume 1 report (Blanco et al., 2020); that report documented the framework used to evaluate the regulatory text and Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance test procedures with the goal of identifying possible options to address unnecessary/unintended regulatory barriers for the compliance verification of ADS-dedicated vehicles (ADS-DVs) that lack manually operated driving controls. |
DOT HS 813 024 |
Safety of the Intended Functionality of Lane- Centering and Lane- Changing Maneuvers of a Generic Level 3 Highway Chauffeur SystemThis report describes the findings from applying Safety of the Intended Functionality (SOTIF) concepts as described in (ISO) Publicly Available Specification 21448 to the lane-changing and lane-centering maneuvers of a generic Level 3 highway chauffeur system. This report compares the SOTIF process described in PAS 21448 with the automotive industry’s voluntary functional safety standard, ISO 26262. This report then develops a generalized Level 3 highway chauffeur system based on discussions with stakeholders and a literature search, and identifies potential vehicle-level hazards, triggering events, and SOTIF mitigation measures for the generalized system. Finally, this report presents an approach for developing candidate scenarios to evaluate triggering events and discusses current SOTIF evaluation approaches. |
DOT HS 812 879 |
Biofidelity Report of the THOR 5th Percentile Anthropomorphic Test DeviceThree prototype anthropomorphic test devices (ATD) were fabricated to evaluate the biofidelity of a newly designed THOR 5thth percentile female ATD. This report focuses on the biofidelity responses derived from testing one of these ATDs. There were a total of 23 biofidelity test conditions that included the head, neck, shoulder, thorax, abdomen, knee-thigh-hip complex, and lower extremity. Three repeated tests were conducted on a single ATD for each test condition. The biofidelity was objectively scored in accordance with NHTSA’s Biofidelity Ranking System (BioRank). Three prototype ATDs were fabricated to evaluate the biofidelity of a newly design THOR 5thth percentile female ATD. The BioRank score of each body region was scored and the overall BioRank score of the dummy (i.e., the average of all body regions) was less than 2.0, corresponding to “good” biofidelity. |
DOT HS 812 853 |
Cybersecurity of Firmware UpdatesOver-the-Air (OTA) software and firmware updates are essential for networked devices. In the automotive industry, OTA firmware updates are anticipated to increase the efficiency and decrease the time in updating the critical firmware in vehicles’ electronic control units. This project had these objectives: understand the scope and relevant attributes of firmware updates, understand their vulnerabilities and update solutions, understand mitigation methods, and learn from adjacent industries. The report first presents a literature and technology review of the state-of-the-art of software updates in industries related to automotive, including the commercial aviation, medical, and consumer electronics industries. Next it identifies and assesses software update functionality risks in current and near-term future automobiles. Finally, it reviews mitigation methods to address those risks. In addition, this report describes the SAE AS5553A voluntary standard for the detection of and protection against counterfeit electronic parts in the aerospace industry and how it relates to the automotive industry. |
DOT HS 812 807 |