A cooperative active blind spot assistant as example for next-gen cooperative driver assistance systems (CoDAS)

Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication has recently passed from a research topic to the subject of Field Operational Testing (FOT) and pilot deployment. Current state-of-the art Car-to-Car and Car-to-Infrastructure (C2X) functions will however only inform the driver, not interfere in actual vehicle operation. A logical next step after initial deployment will be sensor fusion to enhance actively intervening Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) with information received over C2X. As the penetration rate of equipped vehicles increases over time, higher-level CoDAS functions become feasible. In this paper we present a concept for a cooperative active blind spot assistant (CABSA) as an exemplary function of these novel Cooperative Driver Assistance Systems. As the CABSA function improves an existing ADAS function, no negative effects are observed in low-penetration scenarios. The function was implemented with messages adhering European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standards. Simulations and real-life tests show that the increase in operation range significantly expands the vehicle speed envelope upon which the system can prevent accidents compared to conventional blind-spot assistance.