PCM stands for Pre-Crash Matrix and is a specified format which can be used to describe the phase of a road traffic accident before the first collision happens (the so-called pre-crash phase). By means of the PCM, those involved, their dynamics and the surroundings can be depicted and evaluated.
Originally, the PCM was developed as an internal format by the VUFO in 2011 to provide pre-crash data related to traffic collisions, which were investigated during the German Road Accident In-Depth Study (GIDAS) in order to present this data to our project partners. Since 2019 the current format has been defined and published in its version 5.0. Since then, it can be used for any traffic collision or accident scenario data base. This data base is freely accessible.

The current GIDAS-PCM is available in the format 5.0.

What can the format specification be used for?

Scenarios (e.g. based on collision reconstruction) or data recordings (e.g. of Event Data Recorder (DER), Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS), Field Operational Test (FOT), etc.) are archived in a standardised and structured way. Subsequently, the established data base can be used for analysing and evaluating time-dependent and driving dynamic parameters.
Furthermore, the format specification can be used as basis to convert other formats or driving dynamic solutions.

Frequently used formats:

• OpenDRIVE®
• OpenSCENARIO®
• Road5

• IPG: CarMaker, TruckMaker, MotorcycleMaker
• dSPACE: Automotive Simulation Models (ASM)
• Mechanical Simulation: CarSim, BikeSim

Format specification

The specification comprises of the structure, the variables and the corresponding descriptions of the PCM format.
You will view here as a *.ZIP to download the current PCM format specification including the available libraries:

Download

Properties and libraries have been processed for the German road traffic infrastructure. Any other country-specific infrastructure can be archived and used in additional tables.
An example scenario in PCM format can also be downloaded here as *.ZIP:

Download