Traffic accidents in the oldest nation in the world stimulate changes by automakers

Photographer: Kyodo / AP Photo

Automakers in Japan, where nearly 30% of the population is 65 or older, are leading the adaptation of cars so that the country’s legions of elderly drivers can to feel more confident – and safer – behind the wheel.

A series of accidents involving elderly people behind the wheel has increased pressure from regulators to standardize advanced features. Automatic brakes will be required for all new vehicles sold domestically starting this year, for example, and companies like Toyota Motor Corp. Nissan Motor Co. are employing smart technology to make cars more age-friendly.

It is also becoming more of a priority as public railways in rural areas disappear, aggravating an isolation crisis made even more severe by the coronavirus pandemic. With no means of transportation, older people in Japan are increasingly confined to their homes, their lives shrinking as transportation options evaporate.

A recent high-profile fatal accident highlighted the problem. In February last year, Japanese prosecutors indicted Kozo Iizuka, 89, on charges of negligence, resulting in death and injury after an accident in Tokyo Ikebukuro district. The former senior bureaucrat was on his way to a French restaurant with his wife in April 2019 when his Toyota Prius plowed through an intersection, killing a child and his mother and injuring several others.

The accident made headlines, mainly because of Iizuka’s high government position. Public sentiment quickly turned against Iizuka, who returned to court this week after pleading not guilty in October. The incident also sparked a national debate about increasing the number of elderly drivers on Japanese roads. After the event, the number of elderly people who chose to park their wheels forever skyrocketed. According National Police Agency, 350,428 people aged 75 and over returned their driver’s licenses in 2019, the largest ever recorded.

“Young people tell us that the elderly should return our driver’s licenses, but they are not around,” said Hideaki Fukushima, 90, whose wife returned her own license at the time of the accident. The couple’s children live in Nagoya, a two-hour drive away. Inside Takamori, where they live, a small town in the central mountain region of Japan, trains operated by The Central Japan Railway Co. only runs once an hour. “There is nothing you can do without a car,” says Fukushima.

Last year, Toyota updated its Offering a sense of security. The technology was designed to prevent or mitigate frontal collisions, as well as keeping drivers in their lane. Using high-resolution cameras on the windshield and bumper-mounted radars, it can detect approaching cars or pedestrians – or even bicycles during the day – and give audible and visual alerts. If drivers do not respond, automatic braking can be activated. The new software also has intersecting functionality to help detect obstacles if a car is making a turn from a stationary position.

Other Toyota Safety Sense features include the correction of unintended lane exits, automatic switching between high and low at night depending on surrounding traffic and detection of slower cars ahead on a highway and automatic maintenance of a pre-defined distance. Assistive technology for traffic signs detects stop and speed signals when they are overtaken and displays an alert on the dashboard if drivers themselves have forgotten them.

“A society in which the elderly can drive safely is crucial to their active social participation and healthier, fuller lives,” said Toyota. “Our ultimate goal is, of course, to have zero victims in traffic accidents.”

The aspirations of Subaru Corp. are similar; it wants to eliminate all fatal accidents by 2030. Like many other automakers, it is using stereo cameras, which have two or more lenses with a separate image sensor for each, providing the ability to capture three-dimensional images. Dubbed EyeSight, the technology looks ahead and alerts drivers of any danger. Subaru says vehicles equipped with Vision are involved in 61% fewer accidents and 85% less rear collisions. Pedestrian-related injuries are reduced by 35%.

“It would be impossible to eradicate all fatal accidents without using artificial intelligence,” said Eiji Shibata, from Subaru, who oversees the development of EyeSight. To achieve its ambitious goal, Subaru plans to combine its stereo cameras with AI, assigning meaning to each object and trying to accurately infer the risk.

This has its challenges, according to Shibata. “It is a technologically difficult area,” he says. Stereo cameras are more difficult to install in mass-produced cars, in part because they transmit more information than other sensors and require more complicated back-end support. “Equipping the technology in cars that people normally use is a huge task.”