Jan 15, 2008

Next Generation Safety Will Be Active

Accident statistics show that incremental benefits from passive safety efforts are growing harder to come by, so the automotive industry is looking to active safety systems for the next big round of reductions in injuries and fatalities on the road. Clearly, avoiding an accident is preferable to protecting the occupants of a vehicle from harm in an impact with another vehicle or an immovable object. And now ABI Research suggests that radar is a technology that will lead the active safety charge.

Many studies have shown that leaving the road or making a lane change without checking the blind spot are major causes of traffic accidents. So is running into the back of another vehicle. These incidents are mostly due to driver error, mainly inattention. The new generation of driver assistance systems is designed to watch the road and other road users and warn the driver if anything potentially dangerous is about to happen. Some systems can take action to help the driver avoid or mitigate accidents.

"All the latest driver assistance systems use some form of obstacle detection technology to constantly monitor what is going on around the vehicle," says ABI Research principal analyst David Alexander. "Ultrasonics, radar, lidar and cameras all play a role in currently available technology, but we see some trends emerging that indicate a shift towards radar sensors as the key technology over the next five years."

A new ABI Research study, "Automotive Obstacle Detection Systems" examines the growing availability of a variety of driver assistance systems such as blind spot detection, lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control. Ultrasonics remains the technology of choice for parking assistance, but even that domain could be challenged in the future as radar and camera technology become less expensive and more powerful.

"We see significant growth in this market over the next five years, and as volumes grow, the component costs are going to decline significantly," Alexander said. "The migration from luxury to mainstream vehicles will be accompanied by a trend towards multiple functions for greater added value to the end consumer."