Skip to main content

South Korea tests accident avoidance system

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has begun testing of vehicle-crash avoidance technology on a short road from Seoul to Suwon on the Seoul-Busan expressway, with a view to reducing the number of highway accidents. The accident avoidance system uses wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE) technology which allows vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, detecting any change in road conditions and warning drivers of potential hazards. Closed circuit
July 11, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has begun testing of vehicle-crash avoidance technology on a short road from Seoul to Suwon on the Seoul-Busan expressway, with a view to reducing the number of highway accidents.

The accident avoidance system uses wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE) technology which allows vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, detecting any change in road conditions and warning drivers of potential hazards. Closed circuit television cameras monitor road conditions and transmit a warning to other vehicles.

The WAVE technology also monitors the status of other vehicles within a 500-metre radius and warns drivers of hazards such as a car making a sudden stop.

"The fatality rate in rear-end collisions involving a stopped vehicle on highways is up to six times higher than that of other types of accidents, but there has not been a technology that can effectively prevent such accidents," the ministry said.

If successful, the ministry expects the technology to reduce highway accidents by up to 80 per cent.

Related Content

  • Infrastructure and the autonomous vehicle
    December 12, 2014
    Harold Worrall ponders the effect of autonomous vehicles on transportation infrastructure. For the last century the transportation industry has been focused on the supply of infrastructure to support the ever growing fleet of vehicles and the greater number of miles covered by each vehicle. Our focus has been planning, funding, designing, building and maintaining roadways. Politicians, engineers, planners, financial managers … all of us have had this focus. We have experienced demand growth since the first
  • UK defaults to hard shoulder running to expand motorway capacity
    April 8, 2014
    Hard shoulder running has become the UK’s default response to increasing motorway capacity as Colin Sowman reports. Facing a predicted 46% increase in traffic levels by 2040 and the current economic recovery leading to more people travelling to, from and for work leaves the UK government under short- and long-term pressure to increase the capacity on the main motorway network. Particular sections of motorways are already experiencing repeated, sometimes tidal, congestion and both tight Treasury limits and t
  • Innovia & The Ray feel the pulse
    March 15, 2022
    Getting drivers to slow down and space themselves safely on the road is a problem – but a collaboration between Innovia Technology and The Ray may have found a new way to do it
  • Semi-autonomous hybrid vehicle trials show fuel, emission savings
    July 16, 2012
    The Transport Research Laboratory has unveiled an innovative semi-autonomous vehicle prototype. It offers improves in environmental performance and safety but also displays some shortcomings. Mike Woof reports. The UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been working on an innovative project to develop a prototype vehicle intended to reduce fuel consumption. Based on a Ford Escape hybrid model, TRL's Sentience vehicle uses a combination of mobile communications and mapping technologies to reduce fuel c