Car accidents in the world’s oldest nation changes by car manufacturers

Photographer: Kyodo / AP Photo

Car manufacturers in Japan, where nearly 30% of the population is 65 years or older, are taking the lead in adapting cars so that the country’s legions of elderly drivers can do so. bird more confident – and be safer – behind the wheel.

A report of accidents involving older people behind the wheel has increased the pressure from regulators to standardize advanced features. For example, automatic brakes will be required for all new vehicles sold domestically from this year, and companies from Toyota Motor Corp to Nissan Motor Co. uses smart technology to make cars more user-friendly for older people.

It is also becoming more of a priority as public railways in rural areas disappear, exacerbating an isolation crisis only exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. With no way to get away, elderly people in Japan are increasingly confined to their homes, and their lives shrink as transportation options evaporate.

A recent high-profile fatal crash has brought the matter to light. In February last year, Japanese prosecutors Kozo Iizuka, 89, is charged with negligence resulting in death and injury following an accident in Tokyo Ikebukuro District. The former senior bureaucrat was on his way to a French restaurant with his wife in April 2019 when his Toyota Prius plowed through an intersection and killed a toddler and her mother and harmed several others.

The accident made headlines, not least because of Iizuka’s high-ranking government position. Public sentiment quickly turned against Iizuka, who is back in court this week after pleading not guilty in October. The incident also sparked a national debate over the swelling ranks of elderly drivers on Japan’s roads. After the event, the number of old people who choose to park their wheels forever skyrocketed. According to the National Police Agency, 350 428 people aged 75 and over returned their driving licenses in 2019, the highest on record.

“Young people are telling our seniors to return our driving licenses, but it is not there,” said Hideaki Fukushima, 90, whose wife returned her own license at the time of the crash. The couple’s children live in Nagoya, a two-hour drive away. In Takamori where they live, a small town in the central mountainous region of Japan, with trains running Central Japan Railway Co. come only once an hour. “There’s nothing you can do without a car,” says Fukushima.

Last year, Toyota has its Safety Sense offer. The technology is designed to prevent or mitigate frontal collisions, as well as to keep drivers within their lane. Using high-resolution cameras on the windshield and radar on the buffer, it can detect oncoming cars or pedestrians – or even bicycles in daylight hours – and give audible and visual alerts. If drivers do not respond, braking can be done automatically. The new software also has intersection features to detect oncoming obstacles as a car turns from a stationary turn.

Other Toyota Safety Sense features include the correction of unintentional departure from the track, automatic switching between large and dim beam at night, depending on surrounding traffic, and the detection of slower moving cars ahead on a highway and automatic maintenance of a preset distance. Traffic signs for traffic signs detect stop and speed signs when they pass and display an alarm on the dashboard if drivers miss it themselves.

“An association in which the elderly can drive safely is crucial to their active social participation and healthier, fuller lives,” Toyota said. “Our ultimate goal, of course, is to have no casualties from traffic accidents.”

Subaru Corp. their aspirations are similar; it wants to eliminate all fatal accidents by 2030. Like several other car manufacturers, it uses stereo cameras, which have two or more lenses with a separate image sensor for each, which offers the ability to record three-dimensional images. Baptised EyeSight, the technology looks ahead and warns drivers of any danger. Subaru says vehicles equipped with Sigight are involved in 61% fewer accidents and 85% fewer rear-end collisions. Pedestrian-related injuries are reduced by 35%.

“It’s impossible to eradicate all fatal accidents without using artificial intelligence,” said Subaru’s Eiji Shibata, who oversees the development of EyeSight. To achieve its ambitious target, Subaru plans to combine its stereo cameras with AI, assign meaning to each object and accurately deduce the risk.

According to Shibata, it is not without challenges. “This is a technologically difficult area,” he says. Stereo cameras are more difficult to install in mass production cars, in part because they transmit more information than other sensors and require more complicated rear-end support. “Equipping the technology in cars that people usually use is a big task.”