Could serious road accidents become a thing of the past? The concept, dubbed Vision Zero, is based on the notion that any such incidents are ethically unacceptable and that eliminating them requires a coordinated response from governments and vehicle manufacturers. Ever since the formalisation of this idea in the mid-1990s, it has gained traction worldwide. It’s a philosophy shared by the Japanese carmaker Subaru which, with its long-standing history of commitment to advancing the cause of vehicle safety, declared its intention to eliminate all fatalities involving its vehicles by 2030.
Vision Zero was formed against the background of a huge rise in global car ownership – from 50m in 1950 to more than a billion today – and, consequently, steep rises in accidents as more cars were driven farther and at greater speeds. Even by the 1960s, road fatalities had become a major public health issue for governments, prompting regulation, legislation and campaigns to raise public awareness and induce behavioural change among drivers. It has certainly been effective; last year, there were 1,870 road fatalities (including pedestrians and cyclists) in the UK – a far cry from the 1966 peak of 7,985.
Modern car buyers are more safety-conscious than ever. In a global consumer survey conducted for Statista in 2018, 65% of people said that safety was the most important factor when buying a new car, making it the top priority for buyers. And while there are stringent industry regulations when it comes to safety standards, some cars are certifiably safer than others. For those that consistently top the ratings, it’s usually a reflection of company ethos. This is especially true of Subaru: its models – the XV, Outback and Forester SUVs, as well as the Impreza hatchback and Levorg tourer – all hold the maximum 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating. The achievement is the result of decades of investment from a manufacturer that has placed safety at its core ever since it was founded as The Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1917.
“Safety is in our DNA,” says Tatsuya Okuno, chief general manager of engineering division-1 and vice president of Subaru. “It is rooted in our early days in the field of aircraft manufacturing, where accidents are likely to have a highly serious result. We have always dedicated ourselves to providing customers with enjoyment and peace of mind, and continue to challenge ourselves to develop safer cars for customers.”
Just a few years after the 1958 launch of its first mass-production car, the 360, Subaru began collision-testing its models, at a time when few manufacturers concerned themselves with such measures. Crash testing, initially employing a simple winch mechanism, was soon improved with the addition of crash test dummies, and used on every subsequent model at the company’s main facility at Gunma, Japan, long before regulations obliged such painstaking procedures.
Successive improvements were made over the decades: frames were strengthened, and propeller shafts were designed to split and drop on collision impact so the engine didn’t penetrate the passenger compartment. In 1965, Subaru introduced its Boxer engine – a configuration still in use today – which had a lower centre of gravity making it similarly safer in the event of collision. This was followed in 1972 by the introduction of permanent Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, providing increased road grip – another innovation that continues across Subaru’s model range (bar the BRZ sports coupe) today.
“We constantly review our standards by regularly investigating accidents, statistical data, survey results published by third-party organisations, and upcoming regulations,” says Okuno. “We then set our targets, considering the maturity of current technology and trends, and reflect them in the product.”
With an annual R&D budget of more than £856m, Subaru currently has about 1,000 engineers engaged in safety-related R&D, across its Japanese facilities at Gunma, Tochigi and Hokkaido. Safety engineering and testing is also conducted in Germany, at the Subaru Technical Centre of Europe. This comprehensive focus on safety has led to more sophisticated methods of crash mitigation. Today the company’s focus is on “all round safety”, spanning primary, passive, active and preventative safety. Where primary is focused on design features, such as minimising blind spots, and passive addresses the inclusion of protective features, such as airbags or frame reinforcements, active and preventative safety attempts to avoid a crash altogether using cutting-edge systems.
“Vehicle safety is evolving rapidly,” says Okuno. “In the past, when crashworthiness was the core of vehicle safety, the deceleration of collision impact through the body was the key. But now a wider range of technology can be applied. The company is increasingly focused on accident avoidance and the mitigation of damage to other road users.”
Gains in active safety have been won through the introduction of sophisticated electronics, under the banner of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), which enable the likes of Adaptive Cruise Control. Subaru’s focus on preventative technology has been years in the making; by 1999, Active Driving Assist, a driver-assistance system using stereo cameras, had been installed in its Legacy model, providing features such as lane departure warning.
This was the precursor to Subaru’s proprietary monitoring system, EyeSight, introduced in 2008. Dubbed a “second pair of eyes”, it now employs advanced stereo colour cameras that scan the road more than 100 metres ahead in order to track other vehicles and anticipate hazards even before the driver can. EyeSight is responsible for a suite of sophisticated ADAS systems including automatic Pre-Collision Braking and Lane Keep Assist. Additionally, radar and rear-facing cameras have expanded safety around the entire car, while inside the vehicle, the award-winning Driver Monitoring System tracks the driver’s eye movements for signs of distraction.
According to company data collected between 2010-2014, EyeSight resulted in 62% fewer vehicle-to-vehicle collisions and a 49% reduction in vehicle-to-pedestrian crashes. In a 2018 Europe-wide owner survey conducted by the company, 35% of respondents said that EyeSight had already prevented a collision when driving. In line with Subaru’s mission to bring safety and peace of mind to its customers, the technology is fitted as standard on all UK models, with the exception of the BRZ sports coupe. It is the sense of reassurance offered by such safety systems that contributed to Subaru being voted Best Manufacturer for Safety Features in the Auto Express Driver Power Survey, both in 2019 and in 2020.
When the company stepped up its commitment to safety in 2018 by announcing its goal for zero fatalities in accidents by 2030, some tech observers suggested the only way to achieve such an ambition would be through fully autonomous vehicles. But Subaru has set out plans to eliminate 65% of fatal accidents by employing increasingly advanced ADAS. The other 35% of “unpreventable accidents” – such as those involving sudden actions by pedestrians and cyclists – will be eliminated or mitigated by a combination of Advanced Automatic Collision Notification and advancement of crash safety, telematics and artificial intelligence to predict injury and facilitate rescue. The aim is to allow the car to anticipate trouble, while we continue to enjoy the experience of driving.
“To achieve zero accidents, AI will have to play a greater and greater role in every safety field,” says Okuno. “However, driving enjoyment is important, and we don’t want to sacrifice that. A certain level of performance is important to make driving pleasurable. So, we aim to continue to improve the visibility, drivability and reliability of our cars. But our dedication toward the goal of zero fatal accidents will never end until it’s achieved.”
