Ensuring the Safety Systems  are back online to OE Specifications

Our main focus here at OPTiQ Calibrations is to return those vehicles involved in a collision to their previous state and ensure the safety systems are back online to OE specifications. The growth and implementation of these advanced safety systems continues to increase every passing year.

What is ADAS (advanced driver assist systems)?

Advanced driver-assistance systems are technological features that are designed to increase the safety of driving a vehicle. These systems increase safety and reaction times to potential obstacles and dangerous scenarios, through early warning and automated systems. Some of these systems are built standard to certain vehicles, while aftermarket features and even entire systems are available to add at a later date to personalize the vehicle to the driver.

Technological innovation and the explosion of automation initiatives have greatly increased the popularity of safety systems in vehicles. A small sample of the available systems include the following:

  • Adaptive Cruise Control
  • Anti-lock Brakes
  • Forward Collision Warning
  • High Beam Safety System
  • Lane Departure Warning
  • Traffic Signals Recognition
  • Traction control

The Future of ADAS

According to Global Edge Soft, Future-generation ADAS will implement wireless network connectivity to enable Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I or V2X), furthering the growth in popularity of these systems. To put it simply, cars will be able to communicate with each other and through a great mainframe to provide a more safe, automated driving experience.

Although the growth of ADA system innovation has garnered exponential popularity, the market has experienced restraints in moving forward with this technology on a large scale. One of the largest constraints involves scalability and its immense cost. Getting these systems into more factory-built vehicles requires many costs on many levels of compliance, safety standards, and more.

Additionally, increasing the efficiency and performance of the systems comes with a steep price tag. Even with the current roadblocks, the expectation is that the ADAS market for the Asia-Pacific region will reach $9.69 billion by 2023 with a growth rate of 28.6% between 2018–2023.

This growth is also attributed to recently proposed mandates within the government regarding these driver assistance systems and the relationship between the systems and a lower number of road incidences.

When did ADAS first appear in the United States?

Per Greg Smith Equipment, the early ADA systems began gaining popularity in the United States in the early 2000s, including:

  • 2000 Cadillac Deville – Night Vision (NV)
  • 2000 Toyota – Dynamic Laser Cruise Control (ACC)
  • 2004 Infinity FX – Lane Departure Warning (LDW)
  • 2006 Lexus LS – Lane Keeping Assist (LKA)
  • 2007 Audi – Lane Assist (LDW)
  • 2008 GM – Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Earlier, more mechanical technologies appeared in American vehicles as far back as the late 1970s, when the first electronic anti-lock braking systems were implemented.

The United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced in 2014 that all new vehicles under 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) are required to have rear-view cameras by 2018. The catalyst for this change was the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007 after a child was killed by a car backing out of a driveway.

In addition to these back-up cameras, vehicle manufacturers have developed several other technologies to boost safety. An example is the 2013 Cadillac ATS, which had General Motors’ first vibrating safety alert driver’s seat, which vibrated when a driver began to drift out of a lane or when oncoming danger was detected.

How do ADAS’s work?

Most late-model vehicles have ADAS built into their original design and are updated as automobile manufacturers introduce new vehicle models and more features. These systems use multiple data inputs to enable useful safety features. Some of these data sources include automotive imaging, which is a series of high-quality systems of sensors that mimic and exceed the capabilities of the human eye in terms of 360-degree coverage, 3D object resolution, high visibility in difficult weather and lighting situations and real-time data.

LiDAR (light detection and ranging) adds more cameras and sensors for computer vision that transform outputs into 3D with the capability to discern between static and moving objects for added layers of blind-spot or bad-lighting situations.

Additional inputs can be obtained from other sources not part of the primary vehicle platform, including other vehicles (V2V) or vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2X) – WiFi, for example. Future-generation ADAS will continue to plug into wireless network connectivity to provide higher safety and monetary value by using V2V and V2X data.

Why are ADAS’s important?

The majority of road accidents are caused by human error. These advanced safety systems were developed to automate and enhance aspects of the driving experience to increase safety and safe driving habits. ADAS have been proven to reduce the number of fatalities on the road by also reducing the chance for human error.

These technologies can be split into two main categories: those that automate driving, such as automatic emergency braking systems, and those that help improve drivers’ awareness, such as lane departure warning systems.

The entire purpose of these safety systems is to increase road safety, reducing vehicular injuries by decreasing the overall number of traffic accidents. They also limit the number of insurance claims due to minor accidents in which there is property damage but no injuries.

Advantages of ADAS

  • Automated adaptation and enhancement of safety systems to improve driving among the population. ADAS are intended to avoid collisions by using technologies to alert drivers to potential hazards or take over control of the vehicle to avoid such danger.
  • Adaptive features. Automated lighting, adaptive cruise control, and pedestrian crash avoidance mitigation (PCAM) are features that incorporate navigational warnings to alert drivers to potential dangers, such as vehicles in blind spots, lane departures, and more.
  • Sensors have the potential to self-calibrate in the future to focus on the inherent safety and dependability of these systems.
    What are the challenges of relying on ADAS?
    Disadvantages of ADAS include:
  • American insurers, in general, do not offer driver discounts for ADAS-fitted vehicles. This is due to a lack of solid data from automobile manufacturers proving increased safety on the road, though some insurance companies have recognized the significant potential of ADAS to reduce the number of driving-relating accidents.
  • Choices, training and implementation challenges. While the technology is available on the market, many drivers are overwhelmed with the options in that they don’t know how to choose which would serve them best. Furthermore, even with the installation and implementation of such systems, there is the issue of training drivers to use them to the fullest advantage in order to maximize the risk-limiting factors of the system features.
    As technology and vehicle engineering advances, so do ADAS features. These safety systems are now some of the most sought-after features for drivers looking for their next, safer vehicle.