Nissan Motor Company has announced the development of its Autonomous Emergency Steering System which offers new collision avoidance capabilities to its drivers.
The system offers a high level of collision avoidance assistance by applying automatic braking and automatic steering in situations where a collision is imminent and evading obstacles by braking may not be effective.
The system takes effect in situations where unpredictable risks arise, such as sudden intrusions onto the road in low speed zones, or when a collision at high speed is imminent due to the driver’s delayed recognition of the tail end of a traffic jam, a statement from Nissan said.
The company has long worked on the development and commercialisation of brake-based control technology. In order to prevent an accident from occurring, technology is needed to deal with situations that cannot be mitigated through braking alone, the statement said.
Nissan has succeeded in developing this system which, through high-precision sensing technology and on-board control technology, automatically steering the vehicle away from potential collisions, when braking alone is insufficient.
The Autonomous Emergency Steering System, using the information provided by the front-mounted radar and camera, the two left and right rear radars, and the five laser scanners attached around the vehicle, initially acts on a risk of collision that cannot be avoided by braking, it said.
Simultaneously, it checks if there is a forward zone free of obstacles and that there are no vehicles approaching from the rear, and then displays to the driver the direction that the vehicle should be steered. If the driver cannot immediately steer in that direction, the system takes over to automatically steer the vehicle to help avoid a collision.
Nissan has established the Vision Zero safety goal, which aims to help eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries. The guiding force behind this goal is the concept of the ‘Safety Shield’, which identifies six stages of driving conditions, from normal driving conditions through post-accident condition, and works to provide the most effective counter measure against sources of danger which occur at during each stage. The new system is based on this initiative, it said.
