Skip to main content

TRL develops vehicle safety standards for Europe

Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has developed new vehicle safety standards which it claims will save 25,000 lives and assist European countries in the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Matthias Seidl, senior researcher - vehicle safety & regulation at TRL, says the advanced safety measures will protect all road users. “Intelligent speed assistance and drowsiness and distraction recognition will support drivers in their ongoing tasks, autonomous emergency braking and emergency lane keeping wi
February 28, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Transport Research Laboratory (491 TRL) has developed new vehicle safety standards which it claims will save 25,000 lives and assist European countries in the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs).

Matthias Seidl, senior researcher - vehicle safety & regulation at TRL, says the advanced safety measures will protect all road users.

“Intelligent speed assistance and drowsiness and distraction recognition will support drivers in their ongoing tasks, autonomous emergency braking and emergency lane keeping will intervene in the most critical situations to avoid a crash and improved crash tests will ensure that injuries of occupants as well as pedestrians and cyclists are minimised in the remaining collisions,” Seidl adds.

The standards were approved by members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).

Richard Cuerden, head of TRL’s Academy, says: “We are pushing very hard for relevant and practicable standards to be introduced for our vehicles, not only in the UK but across Europe.”

In 2014, TRL began working on behalf of the European Commission (EC) to assess the feasibility of the measures and assembled a group of unnamed car manufacturers, non-governmental organisations, governments and safety organisations.

TRL hosted a forum to analyse each safety measure and allow group members to offer feedback for consideration.

Looking ahead, TRL has been chosen by the EC to help develop the technical rules for the new systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Design improvements for better truck safety delayed till 2022
    March 11, 2015
    On 10 March, the European Parliament approved amendments to the directive on the maximum authorised dimensions and weights for trucks and buses. The final agreement allows for much needed design adaptations to make cabs safer, but only following a revision by the European Commission of the cab type-approval. This means that manufacturers will not be required to implement these changes until 2022. It further retains each Member State’s right to decide whether or not they want to allow the use of mega trucks
  • Participants in new phase of global road safety initiative selected
    February 13, 2015
    Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced the winning cities and countries selected to participate in a new phase of the foundation's Global Road Safety Initiative, which aims to reduce fatalities and injuries from road traffic crashes. With a new commitment of US $125 million over five years, the program will work at both the national level to strengthen road safety legislation and the city level implementing proven road safety interventions. Twenty invited cities participated in the competition with ten c
  • Consumer Watchdog calls for stricter safety standards for autonomous cars
    October 20, 2016
    The US Consumer Watchdog is calling on the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to prohibit autonomous vehicles without a human driver capable of taking control until the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) enacts enforceable standards covering the safety performance of robot cars. NHTSA has proposed a voluntary safety checklist that contains no enforceable standards. The proposed DMV rules would require manufacturers to submit that federal checklist before testing or deployin
  • In-vehicle vision-based systems and autonomous vehicles
    January 11, 2013
    The Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory (VisLab) of Italy’s Parma University has built itself a fine pedigree in basic and applied research which has developed machine vision algorithms and intelligent systems for the automotive field. In 1998, a VisLab-equipped Lancia Thema named ‘Argo’ travelled along the famous Mille Miglia race route and completed 98 per cent of it autonomously using then-current technology. In 2005, VisLab provided the vision element of the Terramax, a collaborative un