The Future Of Truck Safety Systems

Most common safety features on a commercial vehicle today provide warning capabilities, through functionality such as forward collision warning, lane departure warning, and blind spot monitoring. These systems provide audible and/or visual alerts in the vehicle cab to alert the driver about an impending incident.

The next evolution of safety systems involves system intervention, where the safety system will react if the driver does not. One example is automatic emergency braking. With this functionality, the system will apply brakes automatically in the event an object is detected and the driver does not actively engage the brake. 

Continued sensor and camera integration in safety systems

The next evolution of vehicle safety systems, which has allowed the commercial vehicle to intervene on behalf of the driver when an object is detected, includes object recognition through camera and sensor technology that works together, known as “fused technology.”

“Fused technology uses information from the radar and camera to detect, to classify and determine what objects are in the truck's path,” expert advised. “When the camera and the radar work together in fusion, or in conjunction, object recognition is greatly increased. And this increase in object recognition can improve the braking, performance and object detection on moving or stationary vehicles, as well as moving pedestrians.”

Experts expects camera technology to advance to the point where driver-facing cameras will be integrated into the safety systems, in addition to surrounded view cameras and backup cameras integrated into commercial vehicle safety systems as well.