On 14 April 2020, the European Commission published a new study on Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), that is those systems such as, amongst others, advanced emergency braking and speed assistance ones, emergency lane‐keeping and driver drowsiness warning ones which, due to their features, have a high potential to reduce road fatalities numbers.

Regulation (EU) No. 2019/2144 will make many ADAS mandatory from June 2022 onward. However, due to the slow renewal of the European vehicles, it will take several years before a meaningful portion of them is equipped with these lifesaving systems. Therefore, the study analyses the feasibility, costs and benefits of retrofit ADAS for existing vehicles.

More particularly, the study presents in the first place an inventory of retrofit ADAS available on the market, including for each of them information on their performance, limitations and installation requirements. Secondly, the study examines the systems’ safety potential for the driver by assessing the proportion of accidents considered preventable with their use and their concrete effectiveness. Finally, the study compares the systems’ benefits with their market costs and considers two policy options, one based on both financial incentives and an awareness campaign and the other assuming a mandatory deployment of retrofit ADAS for all vehicles during a period of 2 years. 

Marco Stillo