Advance warning of drivers heading in the wrong direction - the "wrong-way driver" information

Munich. Every year, radio stations report some 1,800 wrong-way drivers - in
Germany alone. And, according to transport researchers, the next wrong-way
driver on the road could very well be you or I. The reasons for travelling the
wrong way down a public highway are more often than not decidedly mundane and
have nothing to do with age - indeed, only 10 % of wrong-way drivers are over
65. In a study on this area of road safety, the most frequent causes of such
behaviour have been identified as stress and overexertion, loss of bearings and
poor visibility. Alcohol, meanwhile, is a factor with a third of wrong-way
drivers.

It is the nightmare scenario for every driver: a wrong-way driver heading
towards you from out of nowhere in the middle of the motorway. Because of the
relative speed, the driver has only fractions of a second to react. If a
collision is unavoidable, its consequences are often fatal. It doesn't take
much imagination to see that a head-on collision between two vehicles both
travelling at, say, 120 km/h is going to have very serious consequences,
despite sophisticated passive safety systems and well-developed passenger
safety cells.
To prevent driving in the wrong direction or to warn other road users at an
early stage to increase road safety, BMW Group Research and Technology has
developed a new driver assistance system. Using the car's navigation system as
a basis, the wrong-way driver information system automatically recognises when
a driver is about to join a road in the wrong direction and triggers a warning
made up of audible and visual signals. Beyond this, the wrong-way driver
information system can also use vehicle-to-vehicle communication to warn other
vehicles when a wrong-way driver is approaching on the same road. Last but not
least the information about the wrong-way driver can be sent to a service
centre by the "wrong-way vehicle" and be fed in the "warning chain". Thus the
information is available for all road users in just a few minutes.

Wrong-way driving: three levels provide fast information.

The aim of this assistance system is first and foremost to prevent people from
driving the wrong way down a road in the first place. The system uses
navigation data - which could conceivably be complemented by road sign
recognition - to identify an instance of the driver potentially heading in the
wrong direction. The driver is alerted to the potential danger by audible and
visual indications on the instrument cluster or in the Head-up Display.
However, should the driver still join a motorway or one-way street in the wrong
direction, the main priority is to warn other road users - which is where
Car2Xcommunication comes in. In the research project, the oncoming wrong-way
driver can be pinpointed using the map on the navigation display. The sections
of road on which the offender is currently on the move are highlighted, the
system complementing the data from the navigation system with the position,
direction and speed of the wrong-way driver. This information can also be
viewed in the Head-up Display at regular intervals - and for as long as the
wrong-way driver remains on the wrong side of the road. Audible warning signals
also help in a critical situation. The frequency of the audible and visual
warnings is graded through three levels - from wrong-way driver is in the area
to wrong-way driver immediately ahead.

Integrated communications enhance safety.

Wrong-way driver information is transmitted on two communications channels.
Fast, but with a current maximum range of 600 metres, the vehicle-to-vehicle
channel (Car2Car) is used for close-up identification of the vehicles in the
immediate area.
The role of the vehicle infrastructure communications channel
(Car2Infrastructure), meanwhile, is to carry the information to other vehicles
in the wider area. The vehicle driven by the wrong-way driver sends its
position to a service centre, which then passes on the warning to all other
vehicles. The service centre can supply both police and media with the data
directly. And that can cut the time in which the wrong-way driver has yet to be
seen by any road users - or identified as such - by valuable minutes. Just a
single vehicle equipped with this technology shortens the "warning chain" and
the information transmitted benefits all drivers, whether they receive it
through vehicle-to-vehicle communication or radio traffic bulletins.


Current information on further topics in the field "Research for increased road
safety" you can find in the press kit "BMW Group Innovation Day 2007 Research
and Technology".