News

SAFER Annual Report - summarizes this year's life-saving vehicle and traffic safety research

Apr, 20 2018

SAFER's annual report for the twelfth operational year has now been launched. The report is a summary of the activities and research carried out within the research center between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018.

“This year has been truly inspiring. Safe mobility can only be realized when talented and dedicated people work together with a clear vision, shoulder by shoulder. And this is all what SAFER is about; working together to save lives”, says Magnus Granström, SAFER’s director.

30 members and partners active
The development of knowledge in traffic safety is essential, and by applying collaborative research and innovation the SAFER partners create visible and measurable results in practice. The partners access – and contributes to – a unique competence and research infrastructure. During SAFER’s 12th operational year, in total 30 partners and members representing stakeholders within the automotive industry, the academia and the authorities were part of SAFER. Together, they create new knowledge and research findings that enable people and goods to be transported safe, efficient and sustainable.

Link to partners: https://www.saferresearch.com/about#block-aboutpartners

Automated driving and digitalization in focus
Will automated vehicles be safe? And what is safe enough? These are important questions that need to be solved before self-driving vehicles can be implemented at a larger scale. At SAFER, these are core research questions and the work to help implementation of safe automated vehicles that will contribute to a safe and sustainable transport system is being carried out at the research centre. Development and implementation of automated vehicles is an enormous task and the partners in SAFER are interested in working with matters that a multidisciplinary research platform can contribute with. Examples of areas are validation, verification, method development and field operational tests.

SAFER Human Body Model 9.0 has been launched
Work within SAFER has resulted in a world-leading human body model. During 2017 the 9th version of SAFER’s Human Body Model was launched and well received. The project partners now have a competitive advantage of a unique tool to evaluate occupant protection in a crash. The human model combines research results from several of SAFER’s HBM projects and is world-leading in its functionality.

“As far as we know, this is the only model, even the only tool or crash test dummy, that manages to recreate the movement during a turn or brake manoeuvre with a subsequent collision, in the same sequence, Magnus says.

The research efforts have resulted in numerous publications and several PhD students. This is an example of prominent research and benefits unique to SAFER partners, as well as a successful combination of results from several projects.

For a complete presentation of all SAFER’s projects, please see https://www.saferresearch.com/projects

The hub for traffic safety research, in Sweden and elsewhere
SAFER may be based in Sweden but has a truly global mindset. Our international commitment is wide, with vital partnerships with universities and traffic safety research communities all over the world. By initiating and participating in global collaborative research structures, we strongly influence the political traffic safety agenda and contribute to the development of sustainable, safe mobility – in Sweden, and elsewhere. SAFER works with institutes and academia as well as other collaborative organisations and research programs. The complete list of organisations is presented here https://www.saferresearch.com/about#block-aboutglobalinitiatives .

More than 300 finalised projects
The understanding of SAFER’s added value and assets has become more profound as more than 300 finalised projects show successful results and international visibility. During operational year 12, 32 projects with external funding have been added to the project portfolio, adding up to a total of 73 projects that have been ongoing during the. SAFER partners and researchers have further strengthened the international position and the role as spider in the global web, e.g. in collection and analysis of driving data, child safety and human body models.

Research related to different levels of automated driving is rapidly growing and SAFER is active through direct projects and by participating in different national and international groups. The high momentum in year 12 continues with projects, strategic work, and events. 2018 is thus full of new initiatives and in October SAFER will arrange the 6th International Conference on Driver Distraction and Inattention. Vehicle and traffic safety will be in the spotlight with top international researchers presenting their latest findings. Welcome!

Magnus Granström
Magnus Granström, SAFER's Director