Alan Korn, Director, Advanced Brake System Integration, Meritor WABCO, will discuss how advanced sensors can improve vehicle safety November 6 and 7 during the 21st Century Trucking Partnership’s fall meeting at the U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) in Warren, MI.
Korn’s presentation, “Active Safety Systems - Road to Autonomous Functionality,” focuses on Meritor WABCO’s pragmatic, evolutionary approach to improving vehicle safety through use of advanced sensor technology, such as radar and vision, in vehicle control systems. Korn will discuss Meritor WABCO’s experience with active safety systems in the commercial vehicle market as well as the recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) preliminary policy on the development of autonomous vehicles and the recently released Government Accounting Office (GAO) report on the expected safety benefits of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technologies.
Meritor WABCO, as a participant of the 21st Century Trucking Partnership, applauds this cooperation between government and industry stakeholders in a shared goal to increase truck fuel efficiency, safety, reliability and lower carbon emissions. During the meeting, TARDEC and the commercial truck community will collaborate to identify current and near-term maturing technologies that can be effectively integrated into the military legacy fleet and future platforms to improve current force effectiveness and provide superior capabilities.
The commercial vehicle market has been an early adopter of these technologies, with users experiencing significant improvements in vehicle safety with the adoption of Meritor WABCO’s OnGuard Adaptive Cruise Control/Collision Mitigation System, OnLane Lane Departure Warning System with video capture and SmartTrac tractor and trailer Stability Control Systems. In a May 2013 report commissioned by NHTSA and conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Institute (UMTRI) under a cooperative agreement with Meritor WABCO, Meritor WABCO’s OnGuard Collision Mitigation System was evaluated and estimated to eliminate 24% of truck-related fatalities and save $1.4 billion, demonstrating the safety and economic benefits of forward collision avoidance and mitigation systems.
