Just ahead of the opening of the Tokyo Motor Show and coinciding with a very public government support of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), Mazda has run into some serious trouble with its innovative advanced braking technology, Smart City Brake Support (SCBS). On 10 November, during a test drive to highlight the new safety features on the Mazda CX-5, a fault occurred that caused the CX-5 to collide with a fence and left the customer with whiplash and a dealership employee with a broken arm.
The police are currently investigating the accident, and Mazda has said it will assist in order to determine the cause of the accident and whether or not the test drive was conducted in accordance with company guidelines. The focus at the moment is on the SCBS system, which is geared at helping avoid frontal collisions when driving at low speeds. The system relies on a near-infrared laser to detect the vehicle in front and can assist in braking if the driver doesn’t respond. The system, which debuted in the CX-5, also includes Acceleration Control for Automatic Transmission, which helps avoid unintentional acceleration that could be caused by depressing the accelerator instead of the brake pedal.
Mazda has warned that a number of factors can stop the system from operating as expected. Until the cause of the recent incident is understood and resolved, all test drives with SCBS have been halted. So far, Mazda has not received any reports of accidents caused by a fault with the SCBS.
Road to autonomy
Autonomous emergency braking systems like Honda’s SCBS are leading the way in crash prevention development. Both Euro NCAP and IIHS have begun assessing the effectiveness of the driver assist options on new cars and overall the market for crash prevention technologies is set to become much more competitive in the next few years. Most estimates indicate that if all cars are fitted with crash prevention technology, car-to-car collisions could drop by one-quarter.
These systems are the building blocks of autonomous cars, and Japan has emerged as a leader in terms of its support towards driverless vehicles. Just one day after the Mazda accident, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry held a public drive event in Tokyo to highlight autonomous drive (AD) technology from Nissan, Toyota and Honda. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rode in AD models from each of the three OEMs, and commented on the important role AD technology can play in improving road safety. After riding in the vehicles, he commented: “I think our Japanese technologies are among the world’s best.”
Notably, Takao Asami, Nissan Senior Vice President, commented at the event on the need to address regulations regarding AD vehicles in the event of an accident: “We have to find new regulations, how to take care of accidents if they happen, who is responsible.” Mazda’s experience in the weeks ahead could prove an early indicator of how these regulations may need to evolve.
Megan Lampinen
