Will automated driving technologies obsolete today's effective restraint systems?

Abstract

Autonomous driving will trigger a shift in the epidemiology of road traffic injuries that is raising concerns for public health and requires the design of new strategies for the protection of vehicle occupants. Indeed, today’s effective protection systems were developed for crashes caused primarily by human errors, and they may be ineffective or even injurious in the new typology of crashes that will arise with the increasing level of automation in vehicles. There is a need to continuously analyze and forecast vehicles behavior on roads as automated driving technologies spread and get updated, to design effective countermeasures and address ethical and public health challenges.