Occupant Safety in Vehicles Equipped With Automated Driving Systems, Part 2: Crash Safety Considerations For Out-of-Position Occupant Posture in Vehicles With Automated Driving Systems - Field Data Investigation

This report is one of three related reports on occupant safety in vehicles equipped with automated driving systems (ADS), which promise to substantially reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. While there is optimism as to their ultimate safety benefit, there will likely be a transition period from human-driven to computer-driven vehicles that may bring new, and potentially in-creased, risks. Occupants of vehicles equipped with high- or fully automated driving systems will be free to read, converse, and sleep. Vehicle interiors will likely accommodate these activities by offering reclining and possibly rotating seats. These sitting postures and positions are now considered out-of-position (OOP) and are likely detrimental to the performance of occupant safety systems such a restraint belts and air bags. In order to investigate the risk of alternative/out-of-position postures, this study investigated OOP posture frequency and injury risk for the current vehicle fleet via literature review and database analyses.