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The drive-recorder records automobile accidents and/or near-misses data. To realize the practical use of drive-recorders in automobiles, a fleet test was conducted on 202 cars and trucks that were in regular use on roads. Some of the tested drive-recorders were video drive-recorders (VDR) equipped with a video recording unit to obtain visual data on accidents and near-misses from the driver’s viewpoint. This was the first time for VDRs to be included in a fleet test on drive-recorders. During the fleet test period a total of 30 actual accidents occurred and were recorded, enabling the significance of adding a video recording unit to drive-recorders for obtaining useful data for accident analysis to be examined. It was found that the data collected by VDR enabled traffic accidents to be analyzed chronologically and quantitatively. It was therefore concluded that VDRs are an effective means of analyzing accidents in greater detail.

Recently, the direct yaw-moment control system, in which braking or driving torque is distributed appropriately to the tires on either side, has been put to practical use. Such systems are called VDC or VSC, and are available on the market. These systems aim to prevent the vehicle from falling into an unstable state, but cannot bring a destabilized vehicle back to a stable state. On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that highly skilled drivers are capable of steering a destabilized vehicle back into control. In this paper, we propose a driver-assistance system that automatically steers the front wheels in order to recover a vehicle that is spinning out. When a vehicle enters a tailspin, the system takes over the steering. Once the vehicle recovers, control is given back to the driver. The issue of how to return control from automatic to manual is of particular interest.

An inexpensive driving simulation system with sufficient fidelity has been developed. The system produces motion cues of four degrees of freedom, visual and auditory cues, and control feel on the steering wheel. This paper describes the features of this newly developed system and gives examples that demonstrate its effectiveness. The motion cues provided in this system are yaw, heave, and lateral and fore/aft accelerations. The lateral and fore/aft accelerations are simulated by tilting the simulator compartment. A computer-processed road image is given through a CRT monitor. The restoring torque of the steering wheel is produced by an electrical servosystem via a coil spring. Cruising sound is given in order to improve speed perception. Since the system uses digital computers, the vehicle characteristics are altered easily by merely rewriting the software. This enables us to simulate special vehicle dynamics such as front & rear wheel steering.