Systems for mitigating a collision faster than a human driver of ordinary skill

Abstract

When a collision in traffic becomes imminent, fast electronics may be required to combine data or images from two different technologies. Determining a position or speed or acceleration of a second vehicle may require integration of data from different technologies, leading to delays unless the analyzing is performed by high-speed electronics. In addition, calculating and selecting an effective collision mitigation must be performed rapidly, due to the brief time interval typically between discovering the imminent collision and the time of first contact. For these reasons, among many others, the avoidance or harm minimization actions require speed and precision beyond the capabilities of a human driver of ordinary skill, and necessarily require high-speed electronics, such as a digital processor, for success. In many collision scenarios, relying on the human driver to calculate a sequence of actions, select the best one, and implement it before the impact, while also driving, is unrealistic.