Intelligent safety systems to minimise risk of traffic accidents

More vehicles on the roads, a faster traffic flow  and a distracting stream of information all impose considerable demands on both commercial vehicle drivers and car drivers. On the other hand, there has never been  more opportunities for the person behind the wheel to drive more safely than there is today. The active safety systems found in many modern cars and trucks make it far easier to avoid incidents and accidents.

Volvo Trucks has developed a system that goes well beyond both current and future legal requirements. The system, which was introduced in 2012, focuses primarily on alerting the driver to the risk of a collision.

The emergency brake is only used if it is absolutely necessary, and it is deployed extremely quickly. The braking speed – or retardation to use the correct technical term – is about 7 m/sec2 , which is on par with what many passenger cars can manage. In practice this means that the truck’s speed can be cut from 80 to 0 km/h in about 40 metres.

When the emergency brake is deployed, the brake lights start flashing to warn vehicles to the rear, and when the truck’s speed drops to 5 km/h the flashing emergency warning lights are also activated.

Examples of Volvo Trucks’ intelligent safety systems

• Adaptive Cruise Control , active cruise control that helps the driver maintain a set time gap to the vehicle in front.
• Collision Warning with Emergency Brake , alerts the driver if there is a risk of collision with a vehicle in front, activating the brakes if necessary.
• Driver Alert Support , notifies the driver to take a break if it detects any sign of driver inattentiveness or drowsiness.

News from:http://news.cision.com