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False ADAS activation compromises safety

False Automatic Emergency Braking reports rise and jepordize driver safety

Federal safety officials are seeing an uptick in the number of false ADAS activations that have serious driver safety concerns. For example, more than 800 owners have filed false ADAS activation complains with both Nissan and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administrations (NHTSA) about the ADAS systems in Nissan Rogue vehicles.

Federal safety officials have launched an investigation into the 553,000 2018 and 2018 Nissan Rogue models to determine why the vehicles are automatically applying the brakes when no obstacles are present.

Nissan Rogue owners report 14 crashses with injuries due to ADAS initiated false braking. The false braking activation is a serious issue, but the advantages of ADAS far outweigh the problems with the system in these vehicles.

ADAS prevents accidents

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety statistics show that automatic emergency braking (AEB) reduced the frequency of of property damage by 13% in Feb, 2019. In addition, AEB reduced the rates of rear end crashes by 50% and rear end crashes resulting in injury by 56% in the same period (Pete Bigelow, Automotive News )

What causes false AEB activation?

AEB use multiple technologies like LIDAR, RADAR and camers to detect a potential threat. When driving in conditions where high amounts of metal are present, the RADAR systems can be overwhelmed, causing a false activation. Some of the reports show that the AEB system activated in parking garages where substantial steel rebar in the concrete tricks the RADAR system into thinking your vehicle is too close to another vehicle.

To help prevent false AEB activations from that phantom steel, some systems coordiante with cameras. But that’s not foolproof either. For example, a camera might see steam rising from a manhold cover and determine it a threat, while RADAR would see no such threat.

The problem isn’t limited to Nissan

In a July 2012 complaint to NHTSA, a pregnant driver stated that her 2013 Infiniti JX35 came to a dead stop on a bridge in Ocean Township, NJ. A local repair shop confirmed that they had received many false AEB applications by other drivers when approaching that same bridge. The problem was the large quantity of metal used in the bridge.

©, 2019 Rick Muscoplat

Posted on by Rick Muscoplat



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