Automotive Industry Trends
The Ultimate in Crash Safety is Avoiding Crashes
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The best way to avoid being injured in a car accident is not to crash in the first place. To that end, GM is in the midst of an automotive crash warning research project with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and primary partner Delphi Delco Electronics Systems. Begun in the summer of 1999, the focus of the research project is on making the car smarter about the traffic and environment around it to help the driver avoid crashes.
The first half of the five-year, $35 million Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) research project involves development and testing of prototype vehicles equipped with crash avoidance technology. Ten production Buick LeSabres outfitted with the system will be built in 2002 for real-world testing. "This will be the most comprehensive field test of automotive collision avoidance systems ever undertaken in the United States," said Dr. Lawrence D. Burns, Vice President for GM Research & Development and Planning, the lead GM unit for the program. "Our belief is that the best crash protection we can provide is to help people avoid the collision altogether."
"No company has developed a sophisticated, multi-sensor collision warning system like this and then tested it in real-world conditions," Burns said. "We're understanding more and more the critical link between vehicle safety and driver behavior, and we're working to improve both."
A host of sensors and instruments on the prototype car will measure road conditions and environmental factors. This real-time information will be fed to decision-making software. In turn, the software will alert the driver to hazards in the vehicle's forward path and adjust the car's adaptive cruise control. Once the system design and integration is complete, GM plans to turn over 10 test vehicles to selected members of the public for 10 months of testing in real-world conditions.
The LeSabres will be fitted with forward radar, forward vision, mapping systems, global positioning systems and adaptive cruise control, all tied together by sophisticated software and computers. The system even keeps tabs on what the driver is doing to estimate his or her "distraction level" and response times. When a threat is detected, the system will either alert the driver or, if adaptive cruise control is engaged, take control of the accelerator and brakes to slow down the vehicle.
Information streaming from more than 20 sensors and systems will be assessed and analyzed instantly by custom-built software. Alerts and warnings from the system are based on the software's constant assessment of the potential for a crash. "Our aim is to conduct a real-world study," Burns said. "We want to develop and integrate these technologies so that we can accelerate the introduction of a cohesive vehicle package with both forward collision warning and adaptive cruise control."