There’s been much discussion about the application of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) technology to Class 7-8 heavy-duty commercial vehicles. However, ADAS can also successfully be applied to light- and medium-duty commercial vehicles as well — with some technical caveats. Do you know what they are? 

Many ADAS features are seamlessly adapted to Class 2-6 commercial vehicles, such as forward collision warning, lane keep assist, camera mirrors and others. However, when it comes to automatic emergency braking (AEB), the situation is more challenging. 

The main technical issue with AEB in medium-duty applications is that in commercial vehicles the systems are built on top of stability control. Electronic stability control (ESC) is mandated in Class 7-8 vehicles, but not within Class 3-6 . In heavy-duty applications, where vehicles have air brakes, the same air valve actuators which provide stability control are used to provide the braking in AEB. For each medium-duty configuration with air brakes, vehicle manufacturers would need to implement ESC plus all of the vehicle wiring, networking, and dashboard display requirements to support ADAS messaging in order to enable AEB. Additionally, some configurations may not support the sensors necessary for the latest AEB systems, such as windshield limitations (e.g. auto-haulers) or front bumper occlusions (e.g. snow plows). And if the vehicles have hydraulic brakes, a new ESC system would be required because they do not have the air valves to actuate AEB as is the case on air-braked vehicles. 

Because of this, groups including the American Trucking Associations have proposed that the U.S Department of Transportation consults with vehicle manufacturers to determine long it will take to deploy AEB on medium-duty vehicles, and build into any mandate for AEB necessary exceptions for vehicles with known configuration conflicts so that they would not need to rely on the exemption process. 

Attend this session and learn all about the opportunities and challenges for implementing ADAS in Class 2-6 vehicles. If you operate smaller commercial vehicles, this is a session you won’t want to miss.