Head dynamics during emergency braking events

Abstract

The on-going automation of our vehicles will take away the driver’s attention from the road and the driving task. This results in the car occupants’ paying less attention to the exterior environement of the vehicle and also to an increased prevalance of Out-Of-Position (OOP) seating arrangements. However, emergency braking events are still likely to happen and one can wonder about the effectiveness of restraint systems which are designed for in-position occupants, as reported by Subit et al. (Subit et al., 2017). This study aims to investigate the influence of several seating positions on the head kinematics of car occupants during various braking and speed conditions.