Advanced truck safety \u2013 such as \u201clook ahead\u201d camera-radar systems, crash avoidance alerts or \u2019smart\u2019 braking \u2013 are becoming more popular as fleets attempt to mitigate costly crashes and insurance increases. Now, if only they weren\u2019t so darn annoying to truck drivers.<\/p>\n
The point is not lost on many commercial vehicle and component manufacturers, who acknowledge that drivers can get irked with such technology, particularly when they first encounter them, reports Fleet Owner.<\/p>\n
Depending on the user interface, advanced safety systems in trucks typically deliver warnings in the form of progressively louder and\/ or faster beeps, for example, as a dangerous object gets closer.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0One of the things we hear is, ‘well, drivers hate this collision mitigation system because it’s always going off,'\u00a0\u00bb Stephen Gilligan, vice president of marketing at Navistar, tells Fleet Owner.<\/em> \u201cYou could imagine if you were driving a car and you had an alarm that was going off all the time, you would just desperately want to turn that thing off \u2026 the challenge for these systems is, how do you make that system do what it’s supposed to do without driving the driver crazy?\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n Navistar is working with collision mitigation system companies to explore warning\/ alert methods such as haptic feedback \u2014 vibration-based interactivity widely used in video game controllers and smartphones, perhaps combined with a flashing inaudible light on the dash \u2013 to replace or augment other alerts. The goal will be to deliver an effective \u00ab\u00a0heads-up\u00a0\u00bb to drivers without being bothersome.<\/p>\n While advanced safety systems may gravitate toward subtler warnings, truck drivers will also need time to get accustomed to these latest, more autonomous, safety technologies, Gilligan stresses. He compared the transition to antilock brakes in the early \u201890s.<\/p>\n \u00ab\u00a0It scared the heck out of people (back then). You spent your whole life being told never to slam the brakes on \u2014 you feathered the brakes and so on.<\/p>\n \u00ab\u00a0People are comfortable with that technology now, and the time frame [of drivers being uneasy with it] came and went.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n In 2017 and beyond, look for more advanced safety systems proliferating in trucks that feature various levels of autonomous emergency operation. \u00ab\u00a0I think we’re going to see more systems like that that will potentially take control away from the driver,\u00a0\u00bb he contends.<\/p>\n