The transport ministry will launch a study as early as next month on measures to prevent accidents involving advanced safety vehicles stemming from overconfident users, ministry officials said Friday.
The study will be conducted jointly with automakers as part of a government project launched in 1991 to develop ASVs, which use state-of-the-art technology to enhance safety, they said.
A report on the study is expected in 2006.
Engineers and auto industry officials are worried about drivers' overconfidence in ASVs and the resulting human errors that could lead to accidents.
The study aims to explore ways to prevent such accidents, including those caused by careless driving, to incorporate them in the design of ASVs, the officials said.
Major automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., have announced technical achievements to be incorporated in ASVs, including a system to automatically keep the vehicle in a lane and an automatic navigation system to maintain a preset speed.
Some of these technologies have already been applied to current models. They include a tire air-pressure warning system and an automatic door-lock release system in the event of a crash.
The door-lock release system was used in some 730,000 vehicles out of the 4.56 million made domestically in 2000.