With full market penetration adaptive cruise control and forward collision warning systems (ACC+FCW) have benefit-to-cost ratios ranging from 3.9 to 5.2 for trucks and 0.5 to 0.7 for cars.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in Europe.

Date Posted

11/30/2014

European Large-Scale Field Operational Tests on In-Vehicle Systems: Overall Cost-Benefit Study

Summary Information

As part of a large scale European Field Operational Test (FOT) of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) this project analyzed the safety and environmental impacts of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Forward Collision Warning (FCW) used by ordinary drivers in real traffic. Hundreds of vehicles including cars and trucks were equipped with bundled ACC+FCW technology and monitored in Germany and Sweden to assess performance and evaluate socio-economic impacts.

A benefit-to-cost analysis was conducted that calculated benefits stemming from road safety improvements and more efficient and more environmental friendly traffic. Technology costs represented various market penetration rates and economies-of-scale. Data collected from each vehicle fleet were used to estimate impacts if these systems were widely deployed across Europe.

FINDINGS

The costs to equip the entire fleet of passenger cars and heavy trucks with the ACC+FCW was estimated at 1.6 Billion (EUR) and 28 Million (EUR), respectively. With full market penetration the annual benefits were estimated at 0.8 to 1.2 Billion (EUR) for passenger cars, and 108 and 146 Million (EUR) for trucks. These results were dominated by safety impacts that accounted for approximately 50 to 66 percent of benefits.

Overall, the system had benefit-to-cost ratios ranging from 3.9 to 5.2 for trucks and 0.5 to 0.7 for cars.
For passenger cars the system was either too expensive or users did not drive enough to pay off of the investment.