Safety Push Steering Automakers To Sensor Technology
Many crash avoidance and other safety systems that rely on high-tech sensors are being built into new cars, and could come into much wider use if the government goes ahead with a proposal to rate crash-avoidance features.
“The crash-test part of (the rating program) has been a victim of its own success because we’re at a point now where virtually every new vehicle gets either a four- or five-star rating, and that really doesn’t help the consumer very much,” said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “It doesn’t provide much distinction between one vehicle and another.”
In January the NHTSA mentioned three kinds of crash-avoidance systems it might rate: electronic stability control, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning systems.
Decisions will likely be decided after a March meeting, Tyson says, adding that such ratings would spur use of the safety technologies.
Tyson says rollover ratings have already spurred carmakers to begin offering electronic stability control.
Safety systems use sensors that measure everything from light, pressure and velocity to heartbeats.
“We’re engineers, so the more information the better: What is it possible to sense, how can we do it in a cost-effective way and what benefit do we get from it?” said Gary Collins, business development manager for the safety and electronics division of Siemens VDO, the auto-supplier unit of Siemens AG. (SI)
You won’t find the latest sensor-based systems on many cars yet. But other safety sensor technologies — some around since the 1990s — are going into more makes and models.
“A lot of these safety breakthroughs happen with luxury vehicles,” said Joanne Helperin, senior features editor at auto Web site Edmunds.com. “Hopefully, they’ll trickle down.”
Automakers tend to introduce technologies gradually, often starting with their higher-end brands and models. Toyota Motor, (TM) for instance, has introduced — and widely advertised on TV — a car that can largely parallel park itself. The Advanced Parking Guidance System is an option in North America on the 2007 long-wheelbase Lexus LS 460 L and regular LS 460 models.
“It will assist you with your parking in a parallel, and a slot or reverse, parking maneuver,” said Bob Allan, Lexus College dealer education manager. “Basically, you control the speed of the vehicle through braking. The vehicle, based on sensor input, will determine the steering angle.”
When car companies build sensor systems, they sometimes use aspects of older sensor systems. Such is the case with Lexus parking guidance system.
The feature draws on a technology Lexus first put into its 2001 LS sedan that uses sonar to tell drivers how close they’re getting to an obstruction. The newer parking system also relies on electric steering technology Lexus built into its 2006 RX400H hybrid gas-electric SUV.
Toyota has been working on advanced parking guidance quite awhile. In late 2003, it first built the technology into Prius hybrids for sale in Japan, where parking’s especially tight.
Siemens VDO supplies sensors and other technologies to many carmakers. Besides making airbag and tire-pressure sensors, it’s working on things such as a lower-cost lidar (pulsed laser) instead of radar-based adaptive cruise control system, radar-based blind spot detection technology and a camera for looking forward.
“We’re able to do night vision pedestrian detection and lane departure warnings,” Collins said. “Now, to go further, we’re looking to take these three subsystems and fuse them together in one module — meaning you can start to look at crash mitigation.”
The NHTSA has proposed a new safety standard to require electronic stability control on cars starting in 2009. This technology, originally introduced in the 1990s, is designed to improve handling at times when a driver might lose control of a car. It can brake wheels individually and reduce engine power to compensate for over- or under-steering, and help keep a car on the road. The sensors involved measure things like speed, angular velocity and steering wheel position.
Adaptive cruise control traditionally uses radar to tell when a car ahead slows down, so a driver can be alerted to slow down or the car can slow itself.
All of the above just scratches the surface of potential uses.
Volvo (VOLV) and DaimlerChrysler’s (DCX) Mercedes-Benz are working on an infrared eye-blink sensor to make sure drivers don’t fall asleep at the wheel. Volvo’s been developing a heartbeat sensor that can alert a driver if he’s locked the door and a child’s still inside — or if someone’s hiding in the car.
Siemens has been working on a camera system that can alert a driver to the current speed limit.
Adaptive headlights are starting to show up in more high-end models. They sense position and pivot to help drivers see around corners. Helperin says luxury automakers are often at the front of the curve.
Via Investors
