In support of the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI), the U. S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) initiated a field operational test (FOT) program of advanced technology in passenger cars designed to help drivers avoid road-departure crashes caused by drift off-road and/or by traveling too fast for an upcoming curve. A partnership between USDOT and the University of Michigan Transportation Institute (UMTRI), Visteon, and AssistWare Technology, was formed to conduct the "Road Departure Field Operational Test" program.

The goal of the program was to field test a technology designed to prevent or mitigate roaddeparture crashes and fatalities, which are defined as any single vehicle crash where the first harmful event occurs off the roadway. Statistical reviews of the General Estimates Systems (GES) and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) databases, shows that road-departure crashes are the most serious of crash types within the US vehicle crash population. These crashes account for over 20% of all policereported crashes (1.2 million/year), and over 41% of all in-vehicle fatalities, about (15,000/year).

The FOT vehicle fleet was constructed based on a Nissan Altima platform and consisted of 11 test vehicles, each equipped with the road-departure crash warning system designed and perfected during this program. There were 78 FOT drivers, each driving for a one (1) week baseline, with the system activated but unavailable to the driver, and three (3) weeks with the road-departure crash warning system activated, and available to the driver. During the above (1) week baseline period, all test data was being recorded by the crash warning system, but the system did not provide warnings to the driver. The system did provide warnings to the driver during the (3) week test period. The Field Test required a 10- month time period to conclude the required amount of vehicle driving by the 78 drivers.

The road-departure crash warning system FOT generated a large amount of test data representing the driver performance, driver reactions, and the FOT system performance, during the variety of driving environments encountered by the drivers during the FOT. In addition to the data analysis performed by the contractors, an independent evaluator was also used to study and analyze the resulting FOT test data to determine such things as driver acceptance and safety benefits of the FOT system. The following paper will present a discussion of the magnitude of the road departure safety problem, a brief outline of how the road departure FOT system works, and the FOT results and conclusions to date.