There are many active safety systems available today for commercial vehicles.
Daimler Trucks North America, a commercial vehicle manufacturer, offers the Detroit Assurance 5.0 suite of safety systems for the Freightliner Cascadia specified with a Detroit engine. Detroit Assurance 5.0 delivers Active Brake Assist (ABA) 5.0, Adaptive Cruise Control to 0 mph, and Active Lane Assist. ABA 5.0 is an ‘always on’ system, as it continuously detects the distances to objects in the vehicle’s path, calculates speed, and determines if a warning to the driver or braking action is necessary, says Brian Daniels, manager, Detroit powertrain and component product marketing, Daimler Trucks North America.
ABA 5.0 utilizes a camera and a radar to perceive information. “The camera and radar signals are fused together for greater object recognition, which allows for enhanced braking capabilities,” Daniels says.
ABA 5.0 features full braking on both stationary and moving objects, including pedestrians. When the signal from the radar and camera systems detects a pedestrian crossing into the vehicle’s path, the system provides an audible and visual warning to the driver while the system simultaneously initiates partial braking. This is followed by full braking if the driver fails to react accordingly.
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) to 0 mph automatically adjusts the vehicle’s cruising speed in order to maintain a safe following distance from vehicles in its path. The default following distance is measured to 3.6 seconds on the Cascadia but can be adjusted between 2.4 and 3.6 seconds; the adjustments can be made in-cab through an interactive dash display. ACC is also functional in stop-and-go traffic.
“If the vehicle in front comes to a stop, the Cascadia will also come to a full stop – 0 mph – and hold indefinitely. If the vehicle in front starts to move … then the Cascadia will resume moving automatically at a safe following distance,” Daniels says. However, if the complete stop of the truck is longer than two seconds, the driver must either push the throttle or press ‘set/resume’ to continue using ACC.
Active Lane Assist is a branch of Detroit Assurance 5.0 encompassing Lane Departure Protection, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keep Assist, and Side Guard Assist. Lane Departure Protection enacts as the vehicle exceeds 37 mph; the camera system detects lane markers and if the truck crosses those markers without an activated turn signal, a Lane Departure Warning is issued. The audible warning is delivered through the speaker on the corresponding side of the vehicle that crosses the lane marker, along with a visual warning on the instrument panel. If the driver does not correct the vehicle, the safety system will automatically correct the vehicle back into the proper lane.
When ACC is enabled, Lane Keep Assist uses “micro-steering movements” to keep the Cascadia centered within its detected lane. Side Guard Assist detects objects in the truck’s blind spots and warns drivers to avoid a lane change or a turn that would cause the vehicle to come into contact with the detected objects.
Volvo Trucks North America, manufacturer of on-highway and vocational Class 8 vehicles, offers the Volvo Active Driver Assist (VADA) 2.0, a comprehensive collision mitigation system which uses a camera and radar sensors to detect objects within the vehicle’s proximity.
“The technology enables a series of features to help drivers maintain a safe following distance through alerts and improved traffic awareness, as well as emergency braking, to reduce the risk of collisions,” says Ash Makki, product marketing manager, connectivity for Volvo.
VADA 2.0 combines both radar and camera capabilities to detect objects in the vehicle’s proximity, as the radar sensor in the front bumper monitors objects moving in the same direction as the truck, while the camera’s 42-degree viewing angle works like an extra set of eyes for the drivers, Makki says.
Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, a developer and supplier of energy management solutions, air brake charging, control systems, and components for medium and heavy duty vehicles, offers a range of active safety systems. The foundational technology of these systems is built from the Bendix Electronic Stability Program (ESP). ESP uses sensors that measure yaw, lateral acceleration, and driver intent to mitigate rollovers and loss of control situations.
Bendix launched the Bendix Wingman ACB – Active Cruise with Braking – in March 2009. Wingman ACB utilizes a forward-facing radar to deliver following distance alerts, impact alerts, and stationary object alerts. It is also able to provide throttle reduction and brake application when the vehicle’s cruise control is set. Bendix Wingman Advanced was introduced in 2011.
“[Bendix Wingman Advanced] spurred an increase in adoption, because in addition to the Wingman ACB capabilities, it offers brake application to potentially prevent or lessen the severity of collisions with a forward-moving vehicle, whether or not cruise control is activated,” says TJ Thomas, director of marketing and customer solutions – control group for Bendix.
The Bendix Wingman Fusion, launched in 2015, furthered the Wingman suite of features.
“Bendix took something good and made it better, adding a forward-facing camera, deeper system integration, and new features including Lane Departure Warning, overspeed alerts, and intervention,” Thomas says. “One of the crucial keys as the system became more complex – alert prioritization.”
Wingman Fusion uses sensors working together, gathering input data from radar, video, and the vehicle’s braking system to combine and cross-check information in order to create a detailed and accurate data picture the system can use to initiate procedures. Wingman Fusion has seen upgrades to its system and in turn has delivered more offerings: rear-end collision mitigation, stationary vehicle braking, multi-lane automatic emergency braking, highway departure braking, and ACB Auto-Resume.
The AutoVue Lane Departure Warning system by Bendix is integrated in Wingman Fusion but is also available as a standalone technology. AutoVue uses a front-facing camera to detect if the vehicle is drifting across a lane marking without a turn signal having been activated. AutoVue emits a “rumble strip” effect, alerting the driver to make a correction. The Bendix BlindSpotter Side Object Detection System is another alert system from Bendix; it uses side-mounted radar units, mounted on the passenger and/or driver side of the vehicle to alert drivers of objects in adjacent lanes.
WABCO, provider of electronic braking, stability, suspension, and transmission automation systems for heavy duty commercial vehicles, offers various active safety systems. OnGuardACTIVE is a radar-only advanced emergency braking system that helps to prevent rear-end collisions. OnLaneALERT utilizes a forward-facing camera mounted in the windshield to monitor the vehicle’s position within the lane. The system issues visual, audible, or haptic signals to the driver if the vehicle veers out of the lane without the indication of a turn signal. TailGUARD is a rear blind spot detection system with active braking; the system is designed to support drivers during reversing maneuvers. TailGUARD relies on up to six ultrasonic sensors to decipher its environment.
Pronto, developer of safety systems and software, offers Copilot, a bolt-on highway safety system for commercial trucks. Copilot delivers full adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered collision mitigation, and continuous lane centering. The Copilot system consists of a forward-facing camera, a forward-facing radar, and an onboard computer with Pronto software.
“At its core, all you need on the sensor side of things are a single camera and a single radar,” says Ognen Stojanovski, COO and co-founder of Pronto. “You don’t need a lot of sensors if you have good software.”
Input from the sensors is relayed to a single graphics processing unit (GPU) where Pronto’s software processes the information. The software commands are sent to electronics throughout the vehicle’s various systems in order to apply the brakes, steering, or throttle.
The bolt-on nature of the Copilot system delivers a sense of familiarity to technicians as the same valves, hoses, etc., are “plumbed into the existing air supply systems,” Stojanovsjki says. The maintenance on those aspects would remain the same as they would with normal vehicle operation. Another major benefit of this retrofit installation method is that the vehicle can still operate entirely without the Copilot system. OE specifications are not tampered with or changed, and from a safety perspective, a failure of the Copilot system would never affect the underlying operation of the truck itself.
