Crash avoidance technologies get active

Following the dreadful crash on the M5 last month, questions of road and car safety have started appearing all over the media. And while our roads and cars might be the safer than ever, there clearly remains an inherent danger. This is something that is driving engineers to develop and deploy better safety technology. One area that is beginning to play a bigger role is a move from passive safety; devices such as airbags, seatbelts and side impact protection systems that are effective once a crash has happened, to active safety. The concept of active safety is basically to let the car, and onboard computers and systems, take evasive action to avoid or prevent a crash from happening. Delphi Automotive, a supplier of electronics and technologies to the automotive sector, has been developing systems to protect a wide range of road users from vehicle occupants to cyclists and pedestrians. "The automotive industry has been very successful in developing passive safety systems that help to manage [and dissipate] the amount of energy involved in a crash," says Michael Gassen, president, Delphi Europe. "To further advance road safety, however, we must work collectively to reduce the severity of crashes, or eliminate them." Delphi is developing a radar and camera sensing system called the RACam. The device integrates a suite of active safety systems including full speed range adaptive cruise control, adaptive headlamp control, traffic sign recognition, forward collision warning, pedestrian detection and, perhaps most impressive, autonomous braking. This would automatically slow a vehicle in situations where the driver does not react to a hazard ahead, and is in danger of colliding with the vehicle in front. The single box system is expected to be on the roads in 2014. "The fusion of radar and camera [systems] into one intelligent module provides a sophisticated analysis of the road." says Mike Thoeny, global engineering director of Delphi's electronic controls product business unit. "The technology allows the vehicle to respond with appropriate action such as automatically applying the brakes to avoid a collision." The RACam uses Delphi's electronically scanning radar (ESR) making mid and long range sensing possible with a single radar. And, with RACam, radar sensing, vision sensing and substantial computing power are integrated in a single, compact module that can be mounted on the windscreen side of the rear view mirror. The vast number of sensors now used to measure and manage cars diagnostics systems is undoubtably a growing market. And these offer the potentail for other active safety innovations. One sensor technology originally developed for the motorsport industry has been steadily migrating down. Bf1systems developed a tyre pressure and temperature monitoring system originally for motorsport to aid active safety systems on road cars and in other industries. It claims an in-tyre sensor could become part of an active safety system by providing real-time data such as tyre wear, age, type and pressure level to a vehicle's stability control system (SCS). James Shingleton, OEM electronics manager at bf1systems, says: "More accurate real-time information could enable the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) to apply different control methods as it will know, for example, that a particular tyre is deflated. That information would affect the way braking is used and how successful a SCS is. "It could also be used to inform the car which type of tyre is fitted and it can then determine if the maximum speed rating is exceeded for that tyre, and take appropriate action." With new legislation set to be introduced in Europe in November 2012, the firm hopes that the safety benefits of accurately measuring tyre pressure will be on vehicles very soon.