We’ve all experienced it – the traffic light turns green, and as soon as you step on the accelerator, a stray motorbike (more often than not bearing a food delivery bag) suddenly appears and crosses the junction without regard to the traffic lights, forcing you to stomp on the brakes to prevent a collision.
Well, that is, if you manage to avoid it. Intersection accidents are unfortunately way too common these days, and it seems that we might not be the only ones having this issue too. For its upcoming next-generation LIDAR-based advanced driver assistance suite, Nissan is developing a new automatic collision-avoidance feature for intersections, which may help reduce accidents at intersections caused by irresponsible road users.
The new system features a new control logic for the “more complex environment” of intersections, taking advantage of something called the ‘ground-truth perception technology’ enabled by the next-generation LIDAR sensors. The new technology is able to detect an object’s speed, location, and potential risk of a collision from a lateral direction, and will instantly respond to the changing situation through autonomous emergency braking, or releasing the brakes when the potential risk has been avoided.
Nissan Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Advanced Engineering Division, Takao Asami, says, “Development of this technology is being carried out under Nissan Ambition 2030, the company’s long-term vision. We are on course to develop collision-avoidance technology utilizing next-generation LIDAR technology by the mid-2020s.”
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“Aiming to develop future autonomous driving technologies that customers can use with peace of mind, Nissan is working to fully understand the entire range of accident scenarios by analysing complex accidents that occur in the real world. Our efforts are aimed to substantially improve accident avoidance,” he added.
Accidents at intersections can unfortunately result in significant consequences, as we’ve most recently seen with the case in Penang, where two mat rempits ran the red lights while racing on public roads. As much as these new systems can help, though, drivers should still stay vigilant while driving on the roads, and not just rely completely on technology to bail us out.
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