Knowledge Resources

This research evaluated the potential benefits and costs of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies developed for the SAFESPOT program in Europe (EU-25). The primary goal was to establish benefit-to-cost ratios for bundled applications and account for varied levels of market penetration.

V2V Technology Bundle

• Lateral Collision Warning: Road intersection safety
• Road Departure Warning: Road condition status - slippery road
• Longitudinal Collision Warning: Speed limitation and safe distance

V2I Application

• Cooperative Intersection Collision Prevention: Basic application
• Hazard and Incident Warning: Reduced friction or visibility

SAFESPOT technologies were designed to address accidents at intersections, accidents due to hazardous road and weather conditions, and accidents due to speeding and inappropriate following distances. Since few of these technologies were operational at the time of the study researchers calculated projected benefit-to-cost ratios for the year 2020 assuming the technologies could be introduced to the market in 2015 and improve trends in roadway safety seen in safety database archives from 1991 to 2005. The eIMPACT methodology was used to quantify benefits.

System costs included costs for in-vehicle components, support infrastructure, and operations and maintenance costs over the lifetime of the system (roughly 12 years) using a discount rate of three percent. Implementation costs included a five percent mark-up based on the sum of component costs. A digression rate of 16 percent was used to account for economies of scale and reduced production costs when market penetration rates double. Subject matter experts were surveyed to estimate market penetration rates of these technologies in new vehicles.

Benefit-to-cost ratios were calculated from the estimated safety impacts, accident trend data, cost estimates, and forecasted market penetration rates for the SAFESPOT systems.

FINDINGS

Benefit-to-cost ratios for V2V ranged from 1.0:1 to 1.1:1 with fleet penetration rates of 6.1 to 8.7 percent by 2020. These findings were in consistent with previous studies that indicated V2V systems require market penetration rates above five percent.

Benefit-to-cost ratios for V2I, however, were clearly below 1, ranging from approximately 0.2:1 to 0.1:1 with fleet penetration rates of 5.4 to 9.5. The calculation was based on an infrastructure equipment rate of 50 percent and the low rate was primarily due to the high cost of equipment for large-scale infrastructure projects.

Additional analysis of 100 percent market penetration showed significant safety impacts with 7.1 percent fewer fatalities in the V2V case, and 8.9 percent fewer fatalities in the V2I case.

		Safety Impact
System	Fleet Penetration Rate (%)	Fatalities (%)	Injured (%)
V2V system	100	-7.1	-7.3
V2I system	100	-8.9	-8.5