Toyota reports Intelligent Clearance Sonar has significantly reduced pedal misapplication & vehicle reversing accidents
26 December 2016
Toyota Motor Corporation conducted a survey of accidents occurring in parking lots involving three models in Japan (the Alphard, the Vellfire, and the Prius) equipped with the Intelligent Clearance Sonar (ICS) system—a system which helps to prevent or mitigate collision damage in parking spaces.
According to the survey of data—conducted from January 2015 to June 2016—from approximately 2,500 accidents from insurance companies that cover the policies for about 60,000 of these above mentioned vehicles, pedal misapplication accidents fell by approximately 70%, and accidents related to reversing have been reduced by approximately 40%.
Accidents caused by pedal misapplication were identified based on customer reports. No clear difference was confirmed with regards to accidents of vehicles moving forward.
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| Survey results (left) from pedal misapplication and (right) while reversing. Source: Toyota. Click to enlarge. | ||
ICS uses clearance sonar to detect obstacles during sudden start caused by pedal misapplication, which helps to mitigate damages caused by collision.
The Alphard, Vellfire, and Prius which were launched in 2015 have been equipped with additional sensors and where the detection range has been increased. This expands the total detection range, and the software has also been improved. This enables the ICS to help reduce collision damage caused by pedal misapplication, to support collision avoidance with adjacent vehicles and obstacles, as well as to mitigate damage when moving at low speed within a parking lot or pulling into a parking space even without pedal misapplication.
Those driver assistance systems are required now.
Too many new unskilled drivers, special among our latest immigrants, damage many thousand cars a week in shopping centres and on-street parkings. They stop when they hear collision noises, when damages are done. They don't realize all the damages they do to all the plastic bumpers.
Thick rubber like bumpers may be part of the solution.
Posted by: HarveyD | 27 December 2016 at 10:56 AM