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The conventional measurements to describe the photometric quality of headlamps usually only comprise the luminous flux and the illuminance (resp. the luminous intensity) in several measuring points given by Type Approval Legislation. Practically, these photometric measurements do not describe the visual impression of a headlamp light distribution sufficiently, neither in lab nor in real street geometry. With the clear outer lens headlamps introduced recently, filament images are projected directly onto the screens or streets, thus giving new impulses to research. Starting from the established photometric practice, other types of measurements and physiological fundamentals will be discussed. The basic tools to make physical measurement and physiological impression comparable, e.g. in terms of homogeneity, are shown.

With its origin in the process industry, the IEC 61508 „Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems” is not fully applicable in the automotive industry, forcing the automotive industry to work on an automotive specific adaptation (ISO 26262 “Functional Safety – Road Vehicles”). This ISO 26262 describes an ideal development process that starts from scratch. In reality development activities are often split locally and in time. This can only be handled with a world wide standard as a basis of a common approach, wide enough to give enough freedom to adapt to diverse boundary conditions, but tight enough to hinder local interpretations to be that far, that a complete safety case becomes impossible. Therefore a strict world-wide standard which allows compatible interpretations is mandatory.

The official Indian accident statistics show that the number of road accidents and fatalities are one of the highest worldwide. These official statistics provide important facts about the current accident situation. It is suspected that for various reasons not all accidents are reported to the official statistic. This study estimates the degree of underreporting of traffic accidents with casualties in India. In order to get a national overview of the traffic accident situation it is necessary to improve the knowledge about underreported accidents. Therefore, the in-depth accident database of “Road Accident Sampling System India” (RASSI) was analyzed [1]. This project is organized by a consortium that has collected traffic accidents scientifically in four different regions since 2011 on the spot which have been reported either by police or by local hospitals and own patrol by RASSI engineers.

The 2011 Report of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India states that the total accidents with injuries is estimated about 497, 686 out of which the injuries are 511, 394 and fatalities are 142, 485, an average of one fatality per 3.5 [1]. Social losses on account of these crashes are estimated at over Rupees 100 000 Crores annually or 3% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [2]. The irony is that these causalities are rising at 5.9 % annually. India accounts for 10% of the global road crash fatalities. Therefore traffic safety became very important in India. In order to understand the root causes of accidents data is needed in more detail which could be analyzed and points out the major issues to find solutions to stop this trend. Besides vehicle safety, infrastructure related issues and education skills can be derived out of accident data. Official statistics regarding accidents in India are available in national and state wise reports.

The Bosch ABS for passenger cars which has been in production since 1978 has been described in numerous publications. Following the gathering of extensive experience with the Bosch ABS and its installation in the different models of passenger car, the concept has been revised with various upgrade levels in order to further optimize braking performance on µ-split road surfaces with different right/left adhesion coefficients, in order further to improve the operation of the system when braking on very slippery road surfaces and also to adapt the control algorithm to four-wheel-drive vehicles with differential locks.

Pedestrian crashes are a major safety concern worldwide, especially in India. About one of every ten traffic-related fatalities in the country is a pedestrian. In 2016 nearly 15,800 pedestrians were killed in India. They were mainly exposed to risk when crossing and walking on the road in urban and rural areas. The aim of the study was to understand the pedestrian behavior on the road and to identify characteristics of pedestrian crashes in India. Many unique behavior was observed like pedestrian crossed half way and stopped in middle of road. Nearly 10% of pedestrians are fatal each year involving in ~5% of overall accidents in India, This study revels every second pedestrian accident occurred while walking and crossing the road straight.

Motorized two wheelers, also known as powered two wheelers (PTW) are the most common mode of transportation in India. Around one in four deaths that occurred on the roads in India in 2012 involved a motorcyclist, according to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This constitutes the highest contributor for fatal accidents in India [1]. The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) analysis shows the risk of a motorcyclist having a fatal accident is 20 times greater than for a car driver travelling the same route [2]. An investigation conducted by Bosch looked at the accident database of Road Accident Sampling System for India (RASSI). This investigation revealed interesting facts about the Indian motorcycle accident situation, such as root causes of powered two wheeler collisions and riders behaviour including their braking patterns during the pre-crash phase of the accident.

Natural wind, roadside obstacles, terrain roughness, and traffic influence the incident flow of a vehicle driven on public roads. These transient on-road conditions differ from the idealized statistical steady-state flow environment utilized in CFD simulations and wind tunnel experiments. To understand these transient on-road conditions better, measurements were performed on German public highways and on a test site. A compact car was equipped with a measurement system that is capable of determining the transient airflow around the vehicle and the vehicle’s actual driving state. This vehicle was driven several times on a predefined 200 km long route to investigate different traffic densities on public highways in southern Germany. During the tests the transient incident flow and pressure distribution on the vehicle surface were measured.

India witnessed 151,113 road deaths in the year 2019 and this alarming number is due to increased urbanization, motorization and per capita income. India is home to the 2nd largest road network in the world and accounts for the highest number of road deaths globally. Curbing the menace of road accidents requires tactical road safety policies and their effective implementation. The meagre availability of factual data regarding socio-economic loss due to road accidents is proving to be a hindrance to the ideation and implementation of the policies. The Planning Commission estimated the social costs of road accidents to be 7.9 billion $ in 1999/2000 which was roughly 3% of the country’s GDP and this value was revised to 14.3 billion $ in 2011. Absence of data regarding the loss due to road accidents in the recent times, has been a motivating factor to estimate the socio economic loss due to accidents on Indian roads.

The field of vision of the driver during wet road conditions is essential for safety at all times. Additionally, the safe use of the increasing number of sensors integrated in modern cars for autonomous driving and intelligent driver assistant systems has to be ensured even under challenging weather conditions. To fulfil these requirements during the development process of new cars, experimental and numerical investigations of vehicle soiling are performed. This paper presents the surface contamination of self- and foreign-soiling tested in the wind tunnel. For these type of tests, the fluorescence method is state-of-the-art and widely used for visualizing critical areas. In the last years, the importance of parameters like the contact angle have been identified when designing the experimental setup. In addition, new visualization techniques have been introduced.

For electric vehicles the ability for regenerative braking reduces the use of friction brakes. Particularly on the rear axle of vehicles with reduced dynamic requirements such as urban vehicles, this can offer a potential for downsizing or, in extreme cases, even the elimination of the friction brakes on the rear axle. Due to the fact that the rear axle service brakes also represent the typical parking brake location in SoA (State-of-Art) vehicles, a rigorous rethinking of the parking brake concept is necessary to incorporate safe vehicle standstill management for such novel brake system topology. This research study introduces a novel parking brake design that covers SoA but also legal requirements while retaining potentials associated with the elimination of the rear service brakes such as cost and packaging.