Borderless traffic safety research
Dedicated to save lives, prevent injuries and enable safe mobility
Traffic safety is as important as ever. Every year around 1.3 million people are killed in traffic accidents and 20–50 million injured. And SAFER is dedicated to reduce these numbers. Traffic safety is also essential in the creation of liveable, smart cities and sustainable, automated transport systems. This requires more in-depth knowledge about what really causes accidents and how to avoid them, together with excellent, collaborative research in the area of safe mobility.
SAFER is hosted by Chalmers University of Technology and is Sweden's traffic safety research hub. By applying a unique interdisciplinary approach we deliver knowledge and research that enable people and goods to be transported safely and sustainably.
SAFER's research is conducted within five areas: Systems for accident prevention and automated driving, Road user behaviour, Human body protection, Care & Rescue and Safety performance evaluation.
SAFER is hosted by Chalmers University of Technology and is Sweden's traffic safety research hub. By applying a unique interdisciplinary approach we deliver knowledge and research that enable people and goods to be transported safely and sustainably.
SAFER's research is conducted within five areas: Systems for accident prevention and automated driving, Road user behaviour, Human body protection, Care & Rescue and Safety performance evaluation.
The SAFER research areas
Collaborative traffic safety research for zero fatalities
Systems for accident prevention and AD
Systems for accident prevention and AD
How can active systems and automation predict and prevent collisions? This research area covers the development of automated functions that help the driver to avoid hazardous situations.
Read MoreRoad user behaviour
Road user behaviour
How do people behave in traffic and how can we support them to act safer? Taking a deep approach in human behaviour, this research area is about develop scientific methods and tools to create prerequisites for safe driving.
Read MoreHuman body protection
Human body protection
How do we best protect people in a crash? SAFER continuously develops this research area with the aim to understand and develop principles for countermeasures to prevent injuries in accidents.
Read MoreCare and rescue
Care and rescue
What actions after a traffic accident are the most efficient in reducing mortality and injury severity? This research area addresses the challenges for all road users related to what happens after a traffic accident is a fact.
Read MoreSafety performance evaluation
Safety performance evaluation
How do we develop the best methods for predicting and assessing real-world vehicle and traffic safety? In this research area, our main priority is to provide trust in new safety systems to enable market introduction.
Read MoreThe SAFER Competence networks
Cutting edge traffic safety knowledge without limits
It takes more than one single competence to solve the complex challenges related to traffic safety. Within SAFER, there are several competence networks containing a plethora of knowledge and know-how. These networks are also key for the vital, cross-disciplinary research conducted at SAFER. The academia is at the core for each competence area, with important contributions from all SAFER partner researchers.
Automotive safety assurance
Automotive safety assurance
Focus will preliminary be around how to design L3-L4 automated vehicles such that the accident risk is tolerable, and how to prove that the risk is tolerable with sufficient confidence, and how to design with explainability at all times.
Functional safety
Functional safety
Functional Safety is about reducing risks related to malfunctioning electronics and software. As electronics and software is part of a vehicle, this is a highly interdisciplinary approach connected to most other competence networks in SAFER. The network develops new competence in the area and targets to create more collaboration across the other competence networks.
Biomechanics & Protective Systems
Biomechanics & Protective Systems
This competence area spans the entire injury prevention field including fundamental biomechanics of for instance brain, neck and thorax, as well as human body modelling, child safety and unprotected road users' safety.
Field Data
Field Data
Field data includes the competences involved in the whole chain from collection of data, analyses (case analyses and aggregated), data storage and management to effect analyses.
Human behaviour
Human behaviour
By applying an interdisciplinary approach, the scope of this competence network is to understand human behaviour in traffic and develop scientific methods and tools to create prerequisites for safe driving. It is also about the interplay between humans and technical systems in different contexts; how technical systems should be designed to achieve efficient and safe interaction with the users.
Perception, Sensing & Communication
Perception, Sensing & Communication
Perception, sensing and communication enable technologies for a plethora of safety systems. The scope of this group is to create and share research ideas around vehicular communications, sensors systems, and signal processing.
Structures & Materials
Structures & Materials
The purpose of this competence area is to gather researchers concerned with vehicle architectures and lightweight materials suitable for future efficient vehicles with new powertrains.
Future proof methodologies for validation of CAVS
Future proof methodologies for validation of CAVS
The group discuss validation of automated and connected vehicles. including e.g. relevant test cases, virtual methods and their connection to physical tests, the role of Operational Design Domains (ODD) and relevant connectivity scenarios.
Vehicle Dynamics
Vehicle Dynamics
Vehicle dynamics is creating a collaborative arena connecting vehicle dynamics research carried out in academia/institutes and the corresponding advanced engineering activities in the automotive industry.
The SAFER projects
Real-world traffic safety research that makes a difference
SAFER conducts world-class traffic safety research in a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach. Since our start in 2006, we have completed more than 300 traffic safety research projects with the aim of saving lives, preventing injuries and contributing to sustainable, safe mobility. This extensive knowledge is made available for all our partners and the traffic safety research community. Read more about our projects here.
THE SAFER CONNECTED RESEARCH RESOURCES
As a SAFER partner you get access to SAFER’s open research arena and, through relevant projects, research resources available within the network. Also, expertise to use these research resources is available within the community. The overall idea - and one of our strategic cornerstones - is that research should be easier, better and more efficient through collaborative partnerships. This unique set of platforms includes full-scale road traffic safety test environments, simulators and a research lab for active safety and autono¬mous driving. SAFER also provides physical work areas as well as a world-class naturalistic driving data platform. Together, these resources allow borderless research with outstanding opportunities of real-world testing and validation.
AstaZero real-world proving ground
AstaZero (Active Safety Test Area Zero) is one of the most advance full-scale test environments in the world for a safe, sustainable and connected automated road traffic future. Different traffic environments make it possible to test advanced safety systems and their functions for all kinds of traffic and traffic situations – in city environments as well as on rural, multi-lane and high-speed roads. This enables a broad range of research, development and validation. AstaZero also serves as an international testing area open for stakeholders within industry, society and academia.
Read more at www.astazero.com
Revere research lab for active safety and autonomous driving
Revere (Resource for Vehicle Research) is a research facility with a focus on autonomous driving, active safety and vehicle dynamics. It contains a research lab with resources such as technical equipment, test vehicles (light and heavy) and supporting personnel. Located at Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg, Revere is created to provide a platform where industry stakeholders and the academia collaborate to enable cutting edge research and break-through innovations.
THE SAFER Naturalistic Driving Data Platform
The SAFER Naturalistic Driving Data platform is a secure, world-class platform for handling data from naturalistic driving data collection. Providing state-of-the-art data management, several large datasets and a leading research competence regarding naturalistic driving data, this platform gives unique access to naturalistic data derived from 7,5 million driving kilometres. The SAFER partner researchers also have access to the in-depth crash database INTACT and IGLAD (Initative for the global harmonization of accident data).
Driving simulators
Sim IV at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute has an advanced motion platform system and permits significant linear movement along both x and y axes. It is useful when simultaneous longitudinal and lateral acceleration is important or if a wide field of vision is prioritised. Cabs and passenger compartments can be exchanged quickly. The simulator's imaging system has a camera-based calibration system, making it easy to switch between different driver positions.
SAFER open research arena at Lindholmen Science Park
All SAFER partners have access to our facilities at Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg. The SAFER office is a meeting place with 290 sqm working area including about 15 workplaces as well as meeting rooms, analysis rooms for confidential naturalistic driving data, conference facilities and networking areas. As an open research arena, we enable our partners to join collaborative research across the disciplines in a way that make them more competitive and able to contribute to a safer traffic environment. SAFER is also connected to other open innovation activities such as DriveSweden, CLOSER, Prehospital ICT arena and AstaZero.
Read more at www.lindholmen.se
World leading human body model functionality
Within human body modelling (HBM), SAFER provides a competence platform for our partners as well as a natural contact point for external cooperation. SAFER’s HBM vision encompasses a scalable, tuneable, human body model with omni-direc¬tional injury prediction capabilities, suitable for use in high-g and low-g events and as any road user, occupant or vulnerable group. This means a virtual human substitute that can be used for predicting injury outcome in any impact situation and direction of loading, able to be morphed to replicate a large proportion of the population, standing or sitting, with humanlike kinematics in crash events as well as pre-crash manoeuvres. The SAFER HBM research combines several projects, all developing the existing model towards the overall goal of performance. The research is moving towards an open-source model, to enable wider use of the tool.
Test track at Stora Holm
SAFER's partner the road safety organisation NTF Väst offers our researchers to use a very closely located traffic training site. Stora Holm offers various test tracks and skid pad for tests and events. Here you can drive on different surfaces such as gravel, asphalt, slippery surface and in hilly terrain. The facility's off-road course is located in a naturally area at the facility. There are also possibilities to practice driving in transverse upward and downward slopes as well as in a water-filled ditch. The facility has safety hall equipped with crash scales, a collition chair and more.
Read more at storaholm.se
SAFER is the open research arena where researchers and expertise work together to create safe mobility. Our traffic safety approach covers people, vehicles and the infrastructure – and together we contribute to safer road transports and smarter, more sustainable cities.
Contact information
SAFER
Lindholmspiren 3A
SE-417 56 Göteborg
Sweden
+46 31-772 21 06
safer [at] chalmers.se
