General Motors says research it collaborated on shows high-tech safety features in its vehicles significantly reduce the rate of particular crashes.
Releasing the findings of the University of Michigan study, the automaker said the technologies could help achieve crash-free roads, a goal also set by others, including Toyota, but that has been considered unrealistic by some.
Even if crashes aren’t eliminated entirely, GM said the results of the studies by the university’s Transportation Research Institute show large reductions are already being realized.
The institute matched about 12 million GM vehicles model years 2020 to 2024 to over 700,000 crashes reported to police in 18 states. The automaker said the research showed vehicles with certain safety technologies have significantly lower rates of certain crash types.
For instance, with GM’s full backing safety features, there was an 86% drop in backing crashes. With automatic emergency braking, a 57% reduction in rear-end crashes with injuries was seen. And with front braking for pedestrian crash avoidance, a 35% reduction in pedestrian crashes with injury was found.
The researchers uncovered smaller, though still significant, reductions in road-departure and lane-change crashes when vehicles had features designed to prevent those types of collisions.
“These findings give us real-world evidence that GM's safety technologies are doing exactly what they're designed to do: helping drivers avoid crashes and reducing injuries in everyday driving environments," said Susan Owen, GM technical fellow, safety data analytics and field research.
The university’s recently completed research is the eighth in a series of studies it’s conducted with GM.
The automaker said five advanced safety features such as it examined come standard in its U.S. models with asking prices under $30,000.
As for zero road crashes, last year the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Sweden’s longtime Vision Zero policy to accomplish crash-free roads seemed like a unachievable dream in the U.S. at its recent rate of fatalities. It instead proposed more modest progress of a 30% cut in road deaths by 2030.
