Research on Evaluation Methods for New Technologies and Support for Developing Standards for Collision Safety, Preventive Safety, etc.
New Stationary DS Introduced in Response to Growing Needs for Evaluation Related to Autonomous Driving and Elderly Drivers

“Our research is conducted not to develop cars, but to help activities towards international harmonization of technical regulations for automobiles through safety evaluations. We are also working on pioneering research and studies of issues that may become challenges in the future as technology develops, so that we can respond immediately (when such knowledge is needed).”

Merged with the former National Agency of Vehicle Inspection (NAVI), National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory (NTSEL) made a new start in 2016 as a research division comprised in the National Agency for Automobile and Land Transport Technology (NALTEC). NTSEL was originally established in 1950 as a public research institute affiliated with the former Ministry of Transport (currently the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). Because of this background, NTSEL has a mission to conduct its original research and development that differs from that of automobile manufacturers and universities. The institute appropriately sets the objects of evaluation including the current advanced technologies and technologies that are likely to emerge in the future, and those from other point of view such as technologies that could make automobiles safer to use. Mr. Michiaki Sekine, Vice-Director of Automotive Safety Research Department of the Laboratory, says that the Laboratory members are working on research every day to "contribute to building a safe and environmentally-friendly traffic society” (the basic philosophy of NALTEC).

Our user introduced here is Automotive Safety Research Department that takes charge of reducing safety risks in motor-vehicle traffic and building secure and safe society through this, among the research divisions of NTSEL. As part of such research, the Dept. introduced “Stationary Driving Simulator (DS)” based on Forum8’s 3D real-time VR software “UC-win/Road” in 2019 in response to the increasing need to evaluate issues related to autonomous driving and the elderly people. To date, the Dept. has been conducting evaluation experiments for various new technologies by making full use of the functions of this DS.

As mentioned above, NALTEC was established in 2016 by merging the previous NAVI and NTSEL (both under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT)). Prior to this, NAVI was established in 2002 after it was decided that “inspection made at the vehicle inspection station” among all the vehicle inspections, which used to be conducted by former Ministry of Transport, should be conducted by the independent administrative agency through the realignment of central government agencies. On the other hand, NTSEL, which originates from a general technical research organization of the former Ministry of Transport (the Transportation Technical Research Institute established in 1950), was established as an independent administrative agency in 2001 after a series of organizational restructuring and ministerial reforms.

NALTEC’s five main activities are: 1) research work, 2) approval test, 3) vehicle inspection, 4) recall work, and 5) registration confirmation check for automobiles. The most important of these is “vehicle inspections”, which are based on the Road Transport Vehicle Law and require users to periodically check whether their vehicles comply with safety regulations. In addition to the head office (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo), NALTEC operates 9 Inspection Divisions and 84 Branch Offices in 10 areas throughout Japan.

NTSEL is engaged in the following activities: 1) Support for the government’s policymaking and regulation development relating to safety and the environment of land transport including automobiles through tests and studies, 2) Prevention of the circulation of vehicles not compliant with regulations through type approval tests, 3) Recall-related technical verification of motor vehicles, 4) Technical support for international standardization of Japanese automobile and railroad technologies, and 5) Technical support for the evaluation of technologies and the formulation of standards for transportation systems through testing and research. As the divisions to perform these activities, a structure was organized consisting of Environmental Research Department, Automotive Research Department, Automobile Type Approval Test Department, Automobile Recall Technical Verification Department, International Harmonization Promotion Department, Railway Certification Center, and Traffic System Research Department. Approximately 150 staff members, including researchers, examiners, and office workers are assigned to the Chofu Head Laboratory (Chofu City, Tokyo) and two Automobile Proving Ground (both in Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture).

Automotive Safety Research Dept. of NTSEL is currently covers the following 4 major fields: 1) “Collision Safety” to conduct research on evaluation test of vehicle technology to minimize damage caused by collisions and support for formulation of the related standards; 2) “Preventive Safety” to conduct research on methods to evaluate vehicle safety functions before accidents occur and autonomous driving performance that reduces the number of accidents; 3) “Information Security” to conduct research on methods for evaluating safety assurance and security performance of vehicles with integrated electronic technology; and 4) “Inspection and Maintenance” to conduct research on the advancement of vehicle inspection. Each time a theme is set up in these areas, teams of researchers with different specialties are formed for the theme. Each one is loosely linked to each other, exchanging information as necessary and conducting research as a team.

The first case study using the DS is an experiment on elderly drivers. This was a request from a university hospital with which they were conducting joint research to find out what precautions should be taken when driving in an urban area nearby where elderly people live. In the spring of the same year, Researcher Kato began creating a VR for DS. First, she created an imaginary urban space by imitating the width of the community roads and building landscape in the Mitaka City area. Next, she created a one-kilometer route with one-lane on each side, with one or two events that tend to occur in daily life, such as rush-out of children or a cyclist’s overtaking, while driving along the route. She created seven experimental scenarios by the end of the summer, each with the same route but different events and combinations of events. In addition, a system was built to measure the reaction time and line of sight of the subject while operating the DS, to check pedal operation using video images, and to acquire data such as driving speed, trajectory, and distance from the preceding vehicle through the logs of UC-win/Road. In the fall, an experiment using the DS was conducted in cooperation with the Mitaka Silver Human Resource Center.

Also in fiscal 2019, as part of the Human Factors, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of HMI and secondary tasks when autonomous driving is switched to manual driving. Researcher Kato used VR to represent a scenario in which a driver drives in an autonomous vehicle on an imaginary expressway for several minutes, followed by an audible cue to switch to manual driving. when secondary tasks, such as operation of smartphone, are imposed on the driver during automated driving.

In fiscal 2020, Researcher Kato took charge of experiments of road projection lamp, which overlapped with her own field of expertise. She evaluated the effects on the drivers of owner-driven cars and other traffic participants when driver assistance information was drawn on the road surface in front of the vehicle using headlight distribution. In this experiment, a virtual display plug-in was used to display the road projection. The experiment examined whether the driver's reaction to the brake lighting of the vehicle ahead would be delayed when the driver gazes at the road surface. Utilizing DS, they plan to continue to study the effectiveness and safety of the road projection lamp.