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Category:
Insurance
News /
Short Term
Insurance /
Mobileye
/ August 2007
Keeping Three Eyes On The Road
 An
advanced vehicle collision warning and accident mitigation system
has been launched by Mobileye South
Africa.
The
system, dubbed AWS for Advanced Warning System, provides drivers
with a “third eye” that is always open and alert and can prevent
accidents before they happen. The system uses special optical
processing through a tiny camera mounted behind the rear view mirror
to “read” the curvature of the road ahead, lane markings and the
speed of and closing distance to vehicles or objects in front.
The
Forward Collision Warning (FCW) module continuously computes time to
contact with the vehicle ahead based on range and relative velocity.
An advanced image-processing algorithm determines whether the
vehicle ahead is in a collision path even during curves and in the
absence of lane markings. It also provides audio-visual warnings at
predetermined time intervals as a critical situation arises alerting
the driver and allowing appropriate driver action.
The
Lane Departure Warning (LDW) module detects if a driver is deviating
from a lane without using turn indicators both by reading the lane
markings and measuring the lateral G-forces. If a deviation occurs
an audio alert mimicking a “virtual rumble strip” in the direction
of drift is activated together with a visual alarm. Lane deviation
is often the result of drowsiness or distraction.
A
Headway Monitoring function (HWM) is designed to prevent tailgating
by measuring the distance to a vehicle ahead based on the absolute
speed of the host vehicle taking into account any increasing or
decreasing velocity to provide only appropriate and relevant
warning. The module also uses information about driver actions (e.g.
braking) to suppress warnings that are under the driver’s control
and all alarms are suppressed at low speeds experienced in slow
moving traffic.
“More
than half a million accidents occur on our roads each year” states
Terry Hill, marketing manager for Mobileye South Africa. “Fatal
crashes run at around 12,000 with over a third caused by tailgating,
lane departure or dangerous overtaking and an increasing number are
involving buses and heavy trucks. The Mobileye AWS is designed to
add a vital level of driver assistance, particularly to commercial
fleets where drivers have long and tiring days. The collision
mitigation aspect of the AWS can turn a major accident into a mild
bumper-bashing, or prevent it completely”, he said.
The
AWS system was developed by Mobileye N.V., a company headquartered
in The Netherlands,
with R&D in Israel and satellite offices in the U.S., Cyprus and
Japan.
Mobileye
is a technological leader in the area of advanced image sensing and
processing technology for automotive applications, with a product
offering covering the entire range of vision applications, including
night-vision, pedestrian and livestock detection. The company’s
products are already fitted as standard equipment on a large nuimber
of European, American and Japanese luxury vehicles. The AWS, the
world’s first aftermarket product is already in use with several
European bus operators and is being evaluated by at least two
governments with the possibility of its use being compulsory on
public service vehicles.
The
Advanced Warning System can integrate with most high-level fleet
management systems to record data and video to store or transmit
driving patterns or an accident incident to a database for
examination where required. This feature has aroused the interest of
leading insurance companies and Mobileye South Africa hopes that
substantial premium reductions will be available to their clients.
For
more details on Mobileye Safety products visit
www.mobileye.co.za
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