An event demonstrating unintended sudden acceleration accidents and publicly verifying Event Data Recorder (EDR) data will be held in Korea next year. This is the first demonstration stage jointly promoted by credible domestic and international organizations, including accident investigation authorities such as the National Forensic Service, experts from the Korean Society of Automotive Safety and the Intelligent Automotive Parts Research Institute, local governments, and related companies.
On the 12th, Park Jong-jin, head of the Traffic Division at the National Forensic Service, announced at a forum co-hosted by the Korean Society of Automotive Safety and the Korea Automobile Journalists Association that they are preparing a "Workshop on Reproducing Automobile Accidents and Autonomous Driving Edge Cases," targeted for around October next year. The tentative name is "K-Crash." The event was held as part of the American Association for Automotive Medicine (AAAM) conference, which opened the previous day.
Park said, "Some experts mislead the analysis results of EDR data, causing many citizens to distrust that driver pedal misoperation is the cause," adding, "Unlike foreign countries, there is no public forum in Korea for verifying or researching EDR data or discussing collisions, so we are preparing one."
Park Jong-jin, Director of the Traffic Division at the National Forensic Service, is presenting at the forum jointly hosted by the Korean Society of Automotive Safety and the Korea Automotive Journalists Association during the AAAM conference on the 12th. Photo by Korea Automotive Journalists Association
Public anxiety has increased following incidents such as the accident at City Hall Station in July and the 2022 accident in Gangneung where a grandmother was driving with her grandson. In similar accidents, drivers mostly claim sudden unintended acceleration, but most cases have been revealed as pedal misoperation. Although EDR installation has been mandatory in Korea since 2016, there is still skepticism about trusting accident records. As society ages overall, the proportion of pedal misoperation accidents is also increasing.
The regulations on the performance and standards of automobiles and parts have been revised, and from February next year, the number of EDR recording items will increase from the current 45 to 67. While qualitative factors may influence the analysis and interpretation process, Park emphasized that the records stored in the EDR itself are highly reliable.
The EDR stores data such as whether the brake pedal was operated just before the accident, accelerator pedal displacement, master cylinder pressure, and forward collision avoidance assist functions at intervals of 0.1 or 0.5 seconds. However, only investigation authorities like the police and the National Forensic Service have the equipment to extract and analyze these EDR records. This differs from foreign countries where private sectors also have such equipment and conduct analyses.
In Gangneung, Gangwon Province, a "re-enactment test" to determine whether the sudden unintended acceleration was caused by a vehicle defect in the case of Lee Dohyun (12 years old at the time of death), who died in December 2022, was conducted in April this year on Hoesan-ro, Gangneung City. Cameras and transmission diagnostic devices are being installed on a 2018 Tivoli Air vehicle, the same model as the accident vehicle. Photo by Yonhap News Agency
Most recent cars are equipped with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) that adjust driving speed by monitoring the distance to the vehicle ahead. The industry anticipates that as autonomous driving technology advances, analyzing accident records will become even more important. Autonomous vehicles are equipped with a separate Data Storage System for Automated Driving (DSSAD). The collision accident reproduction workshop next year will include demonstrations of collision accidents, data extraction and analysis, case studies of data analysis, edge case accidents, and comparative analysis of real vehicle data.
This workshop is expected to be organized by the National Forensic Service, the Korean Society of Automotive Safety, the Intelligent Parts Research Institute, and the Korea Automotive Technology Institute. The event will also involve the National Police Agency, the Automotive Safety Research Institute, the Korea Road Traffic Authority, Gyeongbuk Technopark, the Insurance Development Institute, and the Korea Automobile Mobility Industry Association. Private companies such as DEKRA, a Europe-based automotive testing and certification organization; Autonomous A2Z, an early-stage autonomous driving technology startup; and Morai, an autonomous driving simulation platform company, will also participate.
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