The Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP) plans to add an evaluation for collisions with pedestrians in the equipment designed to curb acceleration in the event of pedal misapplication, from April 2023. In this survey, in order to determine the test conditions of the assessment, the actual situation of accidents with pedestrians was investigated using Japanese traffic accident statistics. As a result of the investigation, it became clear that a typical accident is when the center of the front end of the vehicle collides with a stationary adult pedestrian. On the other hand, since the actual situation of accidents regarding the orientation of pedestrians has not been clarified, a method of the vehicle approaching from the back side, which is difficult for the pedestrian to notice, can be considered.

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Active discussion is being conducted for the harmonization of international safety assessment for automated driving, however, it is predicted that traffic characteristics are different in each country. Thus, it is necessary to clarify which standards, or parts of standards, should be the same all over the world and which need to be considered for each country. In this article, we focus on those for each country. We analyzed and compared German and Japanese cut-in scenarios using traffic data which measurement vehicles collected on German and Japanese expressways to grasp country-specific traffic characteristics. Results revealed that the relative velocity and distance between the measurement vehicles and cut-in vehicles in each country are different. Therefore, in order to harmonize international standards of safety assessment for automated driving, the importance of considering country-specific traffic characteristics is shown.

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[in Japanese]

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The following four key factors are essential and must be assured for achieving the widespread use of natural gas vehicles (NGVs, focusing on compressed natural gas vehicles (CNGVs) in this project): safety and reliability of NGVs, gas quality and a stable supply, economic benefits for users, and user convenience. This project aims to show the importance of these factors and consists of three pillars: (1) construction and operation of refueling stations (using Japanese technologies), (2) operation of CNG vehicles (10 passenger cars and 18 trucks made by original equipment manufacturers), and (3) institutional design support (providing policy recommendations based on the data and information obtained from the demonstration).

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