Veoneer Collaborates to Develop Personalized Restraint Control Technology

AVL is excited to contribute the technology and expertise in automotive testing and validation to this project.

FREMONT, CA: The automotive technology firm Veoneer, emotion3D, a leader in camera-based in-cabin monitoring software solutions, and AVL, a global pioneer in automotive development, testing and simulation, announces their collaboration to develop personalized and situation-aware restraint control technology system.

Current passive safety systems, like airbags, follow a few-sizes-fit-all development method and thus perform best for a small number of specified body physiques. This is suboptimal for people who deviate from these averages. A study done by the University of Virginia found that seatbelt-wearing female occupants are 73 percent more likely to suffer from serious injuries than seatbelt-wearing male occupants. As long as passive safety systems cannot decide between occupants' features, it is impossible to attain optimal protection for everybody.

The Smart-RCS project is performed within the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Fast Track to the Innovation funding program. Over the next 24 months, the partners will develop an innovative restraint control system that can personalize the actions of passive safety systems in the event of a crash. Leveraging a 3D sensor for understanding the vehicle interior, the system will consider relevant, personal, and situational factors like body physique, position and pose, weight and gender.

Smart-RCS will offer personalized and situation-aware protection for everybody. This is an essential step to increase safety for everyone in the car. The project consortium integrates all expertise needed to develop such a ground-breaking innovation and ready for automotive production. The introduction of personalized restraint control systems will require breaking new ground in testing and validation methodologies.