How Well Do Forward Collision Warning Systems Work?

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like lane departure warning, proximity sensors, forward collision warning (FCW) systems, and even automatic emergency braking are standard in many new cars. These systems have the potential to reduce accidents and save lives. In the paper "Looking Back on Forward Collision Warnings: A Review of Perception Response Times from Empirical Studies," Exponent's automotive and human factors experts review published literature on FCW research to understand how drivers respond to these systems in the real world.

The team, composed of Iiona Scully, David Cades, Shane Davis, Peter Shlanta, Julio Yanes, and Kelly Michaelis completed a review of published literature related to how drivers respond to FCWs. In their review, they examined the factors that impact how drivers respond to FCWs and assessed the potential implications of their findings.

From the publication: "Rear-end collisions accounted for approximately 29% of all collisions in 2021, 7.5% of which were fatal. Recent research suggests that ADAS technologies, such as FCW, have the potential to reduce these numbers. For example, one analysis posits that FCW technology has the potential to prevent or mitigate approximately 1.2 million crashes, or approximately 20% of all crashes, per year."