High-Tech Safety Devices
Sometimes it takes a government mandate to make equipment safe.
Jim Beach
Contributing Editor
When talking safety, the conversation usually focuses on two areas – making drivers safer and keeping the equipment safe. In recent years a third topic has cropped up: technology. As in high-tech devices that help drivers do their jobs more safely.
In some cases, technology can even overrule the driver to prevent a possible accident.
You find these devices primarily in niche applications where truckers haul hazmat or other dangerous cargo. Safe operation for these fleets is a bottom-line issue – a single accident can carry tremendous costs and consequences. Plus it's quite common to see backup alarms, or rear-view cameras installed in route trucks, municipal trucks and utility fleets. These devices are not so common in typical over-the-road freight hauling. But that could be changing.
Freightliner Trucks says it had installed almost 11,000 rollover prevention systems over the last two years. Eaton VORAD says more than 50,000 of its collision avoidance systems are on the road in North America. While significant, these numbers represent just a small percentage of the commercial truck fleet. Wider acceptance of many of these systems may not occur unless the government mandates their use.
BUILDING ON ABS
Interestingly enough, some of the more recently introduced safety systems are the result of government mandates requiring antilock braking systems. The wheel sensors, air valves and electronic controls required for ABS in turn, provide the information and control functionality for stability and traction systems currently available in the market.
"The development of enhanced capabilities for ABS continues with options such as traction control and roll stability," says Mark Melletat, manager of marketing and customer support for Meritor WABCO. "By enhancing the ABS platforms, these options provide cost-effective solutions to improving vehicle handling and performance."
Freightliner's Roll Control & Advisor, which incorporates Meritor WABCO Vehicle Control System's Roll Stability Control, is such a system. Freightliner's system uses information from the ABS to track lateral acceleration and wheel speed. The Advisor function of the system serves as a driver training aid, alerting drivers when they are operating in near-rollover conditions. The control function intervenes when the vehicle is in a near certain rollover condition and decelerates the vehicle.
According to Meritor WABCO, the system intervenes in three ways: de-powering the engine, engaging the engine retarder and finally, applying the brakes. In March, Meritor WABCO introduced an Electronic Stability Control system based on the company's E-version ABS. Meritor WABCO's systems can be ordered on most OEM vehicles. Among the fleets using the system is Praxair, which has it installed on about 250 trucks, according to Mark Tietje, Praxair's safety director.
Bendix offers another ABS-based stability control system. Steve Moran, program manager ABS products for Bendix says the company's ABS-6 with Electronic Stability Program includes a roll stability feature. In addition to the ABS sensors, extra sensors track gearing, vehicle speed and steering angle to determine if a vehicle is approaching a rollover situation. The system intervenes and slows the vehicle after a number of checks, and only when warranted.
Moran says the system will be launched with truck manufacturers such as International, Kenworth, Volvo and Peterbilt, among others. "It's a new kind of add-on to ABS," he says.
THE DEER ARE HAPPY
Bendix also offers the X-Vision night vision system for commercial trucks. The system includes an infrared camera, mounted on the rooftop that senses heat from the environment. These signals are then converted into a virtual image projected on an in-cab display. The driver simply glances at the display in the same way one would glance in a car's rear view mirror.
According to Michael Haase, Bendix program manager for new ventures and business development, a truck's high beams allow a driver to see about 500 feet in front of the truck. The X-Vision system can bring objects into view that are 1,500 feet in front – which amounts to about 11 seconds for a vehicle traveling 55 mph.
Mark Waltz, director of International Sales at Bendix says a western-based fleet installed the system because they run 24/7 in rural areas with a heavy deer population. The fleet went from an average of 55 deer collisions a year to just five deer collisions after installing the system.
A number or fleets are evaluating X-Vision, encompassing 400 to 500 trucks in various applications, according to Waltz. The more common applications using the system include airport refueling trucks, hazmat haulers and fire and rescue vehicles.
"One customer ordered the unit after a bad experience hauling munitions in bad weather," Haase says. "These are the types of customers that like the product."
The system has a MSRP of just over $4,600, which might be "a little pricey for many fleets," Haase acknowledges. But fleets hauling high-risk loads or routinely running in bad conditions are the ones most interested now.
LANE DISCIPLINE
According to Iteris Inc., 12 U.S. fleets have deployed the company's Lane Departure Warning system with another 35 conducting field tests on the system. The product alerts drivers when they are crossing over a lane boundary by emitting a virtual rumble strip sound inside the truck cab.
The system uses a windshield-mounted camera that tracks lane markings and uses image recognition software to monitor the relative position of a truck within the lane. If the truck crosses the lane markings, the system emits the rumble strip sound on the appropriate side of the truck. Iteris quotes government data to show that 59% of heavy truck fatalities are the direct result of unintended lane departure accidents.
The company also notes that 20 years of government statistics show that highway rumble strips have been effective at reducing run-off road accidents by 30% to 70%. Because of the size and noise of heavy trucks, often times drivers can't hear rumble strips if they are installed on the highway, which is where the system comes into play. Plus, the Iteris system warns drivers before they hit the rumble strip or cross over a lane marking.
Francis Memole, senior vice president at Iteris says the system has been sold in Europe for the last five years with about 13,000 or so in service. In the North American market, the company has about 2,000 units on the road.
The product is available as an aftermarket kit and can be installed in three to five hours, Memole says. It is designed to fit on most modern heavy trucks, but long-nose trucks pose a more difficult installation challenge because the nose can obscure the camera's view of the roadway.
Memole says the company is also working on backward and forward-looking cameras as possible future applications.
COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Eaton VORAD's Collision Warning System is currently on more than 50,000 trucks in North America, says Jeff Barylak, Eaton VORAD global marketing manager. "We see growing demand for this product," he says, primarily due to the increase in freight traffic and the number of trucks on the road.
Eaton says that statistics show that 90% of truck accidents are due to driver error, many times a result of aggressive driving such as following too closely or unsafe lane changes. Pointing to studies that show an additional one second advance warning can reduce rear-end collisions by 90%, Eaton VORAD says its system can make a difference in this arena.
It uses forward-looking and side radar sensors that alert drivers when the are following too closely or when objects are in a truck's blind spot on either side. "The system uses algorithms that take account of the load and speed to determine how close a truck is to the vehicle in front of it," Barylak says. Visual alerts cue the driver when the vehicles are three seconds apart, two seconds apart and one second apart. At a half-second gap, an audible warning sounds.
The side sensors won't "chirp" – or give an audible alert – unless a driver puts on his turn signal. Otherwise, the system will only show a red light to let the driver know that objects are close to the side.
Plus the system has "smarts built into it," Barylak says, with the software designed to minimize driver distraction due to false alarms. For instance, if an auto driver switches lanes in front of a truck with less than a one-second gap between the vehicles, the audible alarm won't sound if the system determines the vehicle in front is accelerating away from the truck.
In addition to helping prevent accidents, Barylak says the system can be a useful tool for training drivers and modifying their behaviors. The warning lights and audible alerts train the driver to maintain safe following distances and to use the turn signal.
Eaton says it has studied more than 1,900 trucks traveling a combined 205 million miles in nine fleets and determined the system showed an overall accident reduction of 85%.
Another component of the system is a SmartCruise function that works with a vehicle's cruise control. Users can set it to maintain a following distance of two to three seconds. If the gap between vehicles shortens, the system decelerates the truck using the engine brake.
STOPPING POWER
While not a new technology, air disc brakes are another item fleets can consider to improve safety. Disc brakes are on virtually every heavy truck in Europe, some 95% of power units, according to Ron Plantan, principal engineer Bendix-Spicer Foundation Brake. More than 50% of the trailers used in Europe are also equipped with disc brakes. In the North American market however, air disc brakes account for a "very small percentage."
Air disc brakes are gaining more acceptance in the North American market, but "it comes down to changing the old perception of the disc brakes introduced 25 years ago into the market." Those brakes didn't work very well and the result is a number of people are skeptical about disc brakes.
Disc brakes offer superior stopping capability when compared to standard drum brakes, with a 20% to 25% improvement in stopping distance over standard brakes in brake tests. The improvement is even greater when coming down a grade under load, Plantan says.
Still, the resistance in the North American market continues, primarily due to a higher initial cost and extra weight.
COST AN ISSUE
And that's really the bottom line for all of these systems. If they really can reduce accidents, why aren't more fleets using them?
The razor-thin margins that many fleets operate under make new, rather expensive equipment a hard sell, says Eaton VORAD's Barylak. "We have a job to do convincing fleets they can get a return on their investment in this technology." He notes that these systems are hard sells to fleets only interested in the bottom line. "We have to make them believers in what the systems can do and how it can save them money in the long run."
Michael Haase with Bendix, notes that in North America, most fleets wait for government mandates before spec'ing new safety equipment. "The exception is for carriers hauling dangerous cargo. These fleets are very interested in these products."
Bendix's Mark Waltz notes that most of the current safety technology is initially targeted to those fleets that really need it. "Any of this technology is targeted to niche markets," he says. "But as sales increase, prices come down and the market expands."
Common wisdom holds that large fleets lead the way with new technologies, and that is often the case, says Iteris' Memole. But he claims it makes more sense for smaller fleets to take a close look at technologies that can reduce accidents.
"For some smaller fleets, one or two bad accidents can make the difference between a good and a bad year."
For those fleets concerned about costs, there could be help from the government. Iteris reported in August that a bill had been introduced in Congress offering tax credits to auto or truck buyers who spec safety-oriented advanced technology devices. Outside of direct government mandates, such incentives can prompt more fleets to adapt some of these technologies.
As the roadways get increasingly crowded, that may be a good idea.
