SAFETY ACTIVITIESTechnology Overview

N I S S A N ’ S A P P R O A C H T O S A F E T Y

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Nissan has set the goal of halving the number of auto-mobile accident fatalities or serious injuries by developing safety technology based on real-world data

Nissan’s Safety Technology Development Concept Based on the concept of “Real World Safety,”

Nissan is working to create safer automobiles with

the goal of halving the number of automobile

accident fatalities or serious injuries involving its

vehicles by 2015 as compared to 1995. Already,

Nissan has made signifi cant progress – with oc-

cupant protection technologies such as SRS airbag

systems and Zone Body construction, hazard eva-

sion technologies such as ABS and VDC, and driv-

ing support technologies such as AFS – refl ected

in a 27% reduction in fatal and serious injuries

involving Nissan vehicles in 2004 compared to

1995. However, further work is needed to counter

an upward trend in the total number of accidents

and create a safer “automobile society.”Real World Safety: Nissan’s concept of analyzing the causes of actual accidents to develop and adopt

effective technologies to combat each problem.

*ABS: Anti-lock Braking System *VDC: Vehicle Dynamics Control

*AFS: Adaptive Front Lighting System

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0.6 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04

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contentsSAFETY SHIELD

Nissan’s concept of “the vehicle that helps protect people.” 4

Helps the driver to maintain comfortable driving 6Helps the driver to recover from dangerous conditions

to safe driving 10

Helps minimize the damage when a collision is unavoidable 13

Improving the road-transport environment 17People-oriented activities

Nissan’s Approach to SafetyThe automobile represents a fun and conve-

nient form of mobility that can be operated

by an individual. At Nissan, we seek to make

vehicles that provide a rich and joyful driving

experience, while offering outstanding depend-

ability and safety to assure peace of mind. To

achieve a safer “automobile society,” we are not

only building safer vehicles, but also improving

the environment surrounding cars and their driv-

ers through ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems)

applications and enhancing people’s awareness

of safety issues through educational activities.

Vehicles

Individuals Society

Total number of accidents

Number of accidents causing fatal and serious injuries

Ratio of accidents causing fatal and serious injuries to total number of accidents

Source: Institute for Traffi c Accident Research and Data Analysis

(Involvement of Nissan Vehicles in Traffi c Accidents)

Index

Source: Institute for Traffi c Accident Research and Data Analysis

(Involvement of Nissan Vehicles in Traffi c Accidents)

50%

reduction

Virtually

zero

Number of fatal and serious injuries per 10,000 Nissan vehicles in Japanese market

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Safety ActivitiesTechnology Overview

SAFETY SHIELDNissan’s concept of "the vehicle that helps

protect people."Various barriers around the vehicle help the driver and passengers avoid dangers from normal driving

conditions through post accident conditions.

Safety Technology Development ProcessInvestigation and verifi cation are essential for tech-

nological innovation. Nissan re-creates accidents

through simulation and experiments based on

analysis of accident data collected from around the

world. In this way, Nissan identifi es the issues and

develops new technologies while improving existing

safety technologies. This process is key to the con-

tinuous evolution of safety performance at Nissan.

Nissan noticed that analysis of actual accidents

revealed the primary human factor to be “recogni-

tion error.” This means that to reduce accidents we

must not stop at developing conventional safety

technology. A further step of technological innova-

tion is also necessary to support the human factors

that help maintain safe driving conditions.

Against this background, Nissan created the origi-

nal approach to safety technology development

called “Safety Shield.”

Analysis of human factors in accidents where a Nissan vehicle was the striking vehicle

Recognition error 74.4%

Judgement error 17.7%

Operation error 6.6% Other 1.2%

Source: Institute for Traffi c Accident Research and Data Analysis (2000)

Accident re-creation

• Simulation

• Crash test

Human research

• Driver behavior

• Injury mechanisms

Safety technology

development

Performance

verifi cation

Accident analysis