Japan has been promoting the development and spread of Advanced Safety Vehicles (ASVs), which feature a high level of intelligence and remarkably improved safety thanks to electronic and other new technologies that have been rapidly developing in recent years. The ASV Promotion Project, Third Phase, has been in place since 2001 for the further development and spread of ASV technologies. As one of activities of spread of ASV technologies, we defined the safety guideline of driver assistant systems as “Concept of Driver Assistance” on the base of the ASV design principles.

ASV technologies help improve safety, yet there is a new risk of accidents. For example, the drivermay rely toomuch on the technology and neglect to pay attention to safety, thus possibly becoming an unsafe driver. Therefore, It is very important to make an effort to define common understandings among Japan, theU.S. and Europe.