Demo: Prevention of Fall-on-Car Incidents

Fall-on-car incidents (e.g., trees or branches falling on a car) are an underestimated hazard during weather events, mainly affecting vehicles. Unfortunately, drivers are usually unaware of this danger until it occurs. On the other hand, connected vehicles can sense their surroundings, analyze this data with weather forecasts, and alert the driver if there is a risk of a fall-on-car incident. This paper focuses on this use case and demonstrates the Fall-on-Car Prevention (FoP) system. FoP system detects trees and tree branches and alerts drivers when windy conditions are forecasted, allowing early preventative action to be taken while parking. Our evaluation compared to 12 human experts demonstrates that the FoP system can enhance driver awareness of the risk of falling objects.