In the EX90, Volvo Cars is both introducing and standardizing a DUS, which combines a dual camera interior monitoring system with a capacitive steering wheel. Powered by Smart Eye’s advanced AI algorithms, which are capable of analyzing driver eye, face, head, and body movements, the system enables a deeper understanding on the state of all vehicle occupants, with an emphasis on the driver. Here, the system monitors the driver’s eye patterns for any signs that they are not entirely concentrated on the driving task.

The integration of Smart Eye’s system will allow the Volvo EX90 to warn the driver, and act when necessary, while remaining non-intrusive if the driver does not need assistance.

iPhone users requesting roadside assistance can be connected via satellite to the AAA after answering a few questions to capture important details – such as what they need assistance with. Once the questionnaire is received by AAA, members using the service will have their membership verified, and service will be provided. Users will then receive clear guidance on how to stay connected to a satellite, so they can message with an AAA agent and receive important information about the status of their request.

The AAA confirmed that Roadside Assistance via satellite will be available to all users of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15, beginning in the U.S., regardless of whether they hold a membership with the association. Here, Apple confirmed that the service will be covered according to AAA membership, while being available separately for nonmembers. While pricing for Roadside Assistance via satellite has yet to be confirmed by neither Apple nor AAA, Apple announced that it will provide two years of complimentary access to the service upon the activation of any new model across the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 lineups – from the base iPhone 14 through to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

As the coming into force of the General Safety Regulation empowers the Commission to complete the legal framework for automated and connected vehicles, the Commission will deliver this summer technical rules for the approval of fully driverless vehicles, making EU a pioneer in the field. These will help to increase public trust, boost innovation and improve the competitiveness of Europe’s car industry.

General safety rules

As of today, the new measures introducing safety features to assist the driver include:

•   For all road vehicles (i.e. cars, vans, trucks and buses): intelligent speed assistance, reversing detection with camera or sensors, attention warning in case of driver drowsiness or distraction, event data recorders as well as an emergency stop signal;

•   For cars and vans: Additional features such as lane keeping systems and automated braking;

•   For buses and trucks: technologies for better recognising possible blind spots, warnings to prevent collisions with pedestrians or cyclists and tyre pressure monitoring systems.

The rules will first apply to new vehicle types from today onwards and to all new vehicles from 7 July 2024. Some of the new measures will be expanded to cover different kinds of road vehicles until 2029.

Technical rules for automated cars

Based on the General Safety Regulation the Commission is planning to adopt this summer technical rules for automated and connected vehicles, in particular focusing on  automated vehicles replacing the driver on motorways (level 3 automation) and  fully driverless vehicles like urban shuttles or robotaxis (level 4 automation).  The new rules will align EU legislation with the new UN level rules on level 3 automation and adopt new EU technical legislation for fully driverless vehicles, the first international rules of its kind. The technical rules set out via a delegated and implementing act will establish a comprehensive assessment of safety and maturity of the fully automated vehicles before they are placed on the EU market. They will cover testing procedures, cybersecurity requirements, data recording rules as well as monitoring of safety performance and incident reporting requirements by manufacturers of fully driverless vehicles.

Working in collaboration with Hyundai, TomTom, ANWB, Inrix and Be-Mobile, Kia is exploring the potential to warn drivers of approaching emergency service vehicles. With many drivers unsure of the direction of travel of such vehicles on hearing a siren, the new warning system will indicate the type of emergency service vehicle and the direction from which it is approaching. The new feature would initially work with ambulances before other types of emergency vehicles are added.

Kia is also looking to develop warnings that can alert drivers to additional everyday hazards, including unexpected and potentially dangerous situations. Drivers could be warned about approaching vehicles travelling the wrong way, closed lanes, and upcoming traffic jams that might be obscured. This would augment existing alerts available through the infotainment systems of Kia vehicles, such as for obstacles in the road, roadworks, accidents, and anticipated exceptional weather conditions.

While the exact criteria will be agreed in advance by the Dutch Government, Kia will aim to incorporate these additional warnings within its vehicles’ existing infotainment system to avoid unnecessary driver distractions, with audio, visual and haptic warnings enhancing awareness. The warnings won’t require any input, ensuring drivers can keep their hands on the steering wheel. Throughout the trial, Kia will provide feedback on the quality of the NDW data so that it can be improved where necessary.

The Safety Priority Services project will run for three years in preparation for an anticipated new obligation to share data related to warnings, which is expected to be enshrined in European regulations in 2025.

Apex.AI has developed an industry-leading suite of automotive safety-certified software solutions, including the Apex.OS operating system. The software suite serves as the foundational infrastructure on which smart machines operate in the automotive, agriculture, mining, IoT and industrial automation industries.

The Apex.OS SDK enables automotive software developers to create safe, reliable, real-time applications more efficiently. Like Apple’s iOS SDK, which allows practically anyone to create an iPhone app, Apex.OS makes programming for a vehicle or robot almost as easy as programming a phone. The result is significantly shortened development cycles of new mobility functions, all of which are created on a bedrock of software that’s recognized for having the highest safety standards.

Apex.AI’s flagship Apex.OS operating system is an operating system that has earned the highest safety certifications in the industry, including product certification from German testing organization TÜV Nord and the highest level of automotive software safety ISO 26262 ASIL-D. Passing these rigorous testing programs means that the software system is approved for serial production.

Excellent safety features 

With the Actros L too, Mercedes-Benz Trucks is systematically pursuing its goal of helping to make road traffic as safe as possible by utilising active safety assistance systems, and in doing so is taking another step closer to realising its vision of accident-free driving. This is evidenced not just by Lane Keeping Assist, Proximity Control Assist and MirrorCam, which replaces the main and wide-angle mirrors, but by a host of other safety features. 

Optionally available for the Actros L, for example, is the Mercedes-Benz Sideguard Assist S1X which, compared with the previous system S1R, is equipped with a further function that could potentially save lives. This new system, called Active Sideguard Assist, no longer simply warns the driver of moving pedestrians or cyclists on the co-driver’s side. If the driver then fails to respond to the warnings in time, it is now able to initiate an automated braking manoeuvre at turning speeds of up to 20 km/h to bring the vehicle to a standstill. Active Sideguard Assist can recognise the need for such a braking manoeuvre and, in an ideal scenario, prevent a potential collision. 

Another equipment option for the Actros L is the second generation Active Drive Assist (ADA 2). Under certain preconditions the system actively assists the driver with longitudinal and lateral guidance of the truck and can automatically maintain the distance to the vehicle ahead, accelerate and also steer if the necessary system conditions such as sufficient curve radius or clearly visible road markings are met. In addition, ADA 2 includes the Emergency Stop Assist sub-function which is able to initiate an emergency stop if the driver is no longer controlling the steering wheel, despite visual and audible warnings. If the truck comes to a standstill, the system can automatically engage the new electronic parking brake. In addition, the doors are unlocked so that paramedics and other first responders can directly reach the driver in case of a medical emergency. 

If an emergency braking assistant is required by law, the Actros L is also equipped Active Brake Assist 5 (ABA 5) as standard which features a pedestrian recognition function. This system can help to avoid accidents where, due to the driver being distracted, the following distance being too short, or an inappropriate speed, the truck is at risk of colliding with a vehicle ahead or a stationary vehicle, or there is a risk of a frontal collision with a pedestrian. ABA 5 works using a combined radar and camera system. If the system detects the risk of an accident with a vehicle driving in front, a stationary obstacle or a person (crossing the vehicle’s path, coming towards the vehicle, walking in the same lane as the vehicle or suddenly coming to a stop in fright), the system initially emits a visual and audible warning to the driver. If the driver fails to respond appropriately, the system can then initiate partial braking in a second stage. If the threat of a collision continues, ABA 5 can perform automated maximum full-stop braking – at vehicle speeds of up to 50 km/h when responding to moving persons. 

The service is based on swarm data intelligence: the more vehicles are connected, the more data is available for the system to analyse, and the more precise the predictions.

“Slippery road ahead!” The ‘Local Hazard Information Service’ from ŠKODA detects low surface adhesion on upcoming road sections and predicts when it will be dangerous – for example, due to icy conditions. In this case, the driver will be alerted via the vehicle’s infotainment system. The information required for this comes from the car itself.

It can detect even a minor change in traction on the road surface and then sends the data anonymously via a Car-to-Cloud application. The transmitted information produces swarm data, which is then analysed to create maps that show localised hazards in the vehicle’s immediate surroundings and – if necessary – notify the driver of the hazard.

Sensors enable road damage to be detected in good time
Among other things, accelerometers or ABS sensors allow the required data to be captured continuously during the entire journey. The integrated software also uses virtual sensors. This innovative technology can estimate the coefficient of friction between the tyres and the road surface based on wheel slip. The sensor data is anonymised when transmitted to the cloud. The aggregated information from all vehicles is then combined with metadata, such as weather information or previously measured information. Subsequently, the data is transmitted to a service provider. Using the data collected, the road network is then displayed as a precise three-dimensional model, which is used to send alerts to vehicles when they approach or already find themselves in an area with bad road surfaces.

Sensor data opens up numerous usage opportunities
The underlying technology can be used for numerous other applications too: for example, road authorities can use the data to obtain real-time information about different road sections, allowing them to gain insight into the condition of the road network. They can find out where the potholes are, which areas are slippery when wet, or tend to freeze quickly. The data can also provide information as to which roads have already been gritted or cleared.

Swarm intelligence enables precise analyses and builds the self-learning system
The more vehicles provide data, the more accurate the swarm intelligence-based analysis, maps and information and/or driver alerts will be. Over the course of 2021, more than 1.7 million Volkswagen Group vehicles in Europe will supply the data. By the end of 2022, this figure will rise to more than three million vehicles. The ‘Local Hazard Information Service’ is available for the ENYAQ iV, FABIA, KAMIQ, KAROQ, KODIAQ, OCTAVIA, SCALA and SUPERB and is part of the ŠKODA Connect services. The service can be used in 30 countries, provided that the vehicle features the Amundsen or Columbus infotainment system.

Information in the report is preliminary and subject to change as the investigation progresses and as such, no conclusions about the cause of the crash should be drawn from the report.

The report states the Model S P100D car was equipped with “Autopilot” – Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system. This system requires both the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and the Autosteer systems to be engaged. NTSB tests of an exemplar car at the crash location showed that Traffic Aware Cruise Control could be engaged, but Autosteer was not available on the part of the road (Hammock Dunes Place) where the crash happened.

According to the report the crash trip began at the owner’s residence. Footage from the owner’s home security cameras show the owner entering the driver’s seat and the passenger entering the front passenger seat. The video also shows the car slowly entering the roadway and then accelerating down the road away from the camera and out of sight. Based on examination of the accident scene investigators have determined the car traveled about 550 feet before departing the road on a curve, driving over the curb, and hitting a drainage culvert, a raised manhole and a tree.

The post-crash fire destroyed the car’s onboard data storage device and damaged the car’s restraint control module. The damaged module was recovered and taken to the NTSB’s recorder laboratory for evaluation. Restraint control modules can record data associated with vehicle speed, seat belt status, acceleration and airbag deployment.

The steering wheel from the Tesla was shipped to the NTSB materials laboratory for analysis of the damage to the steering wheel investigators observed during the post-crash inspection.

The 59-year-old owner and a 69-year-old passenger died in the crash.

The NTSB’s investigation of the crash is ongoing, and investigators continue to gather information including data to analyze the crash dynamics, postmortem toxicology test results, seat belt use, occupant egress and the post-crash fire.

Supported by The World Economic Forum, the Safety Pool initiative unites the autonomous vehicle community to improve the safety of ADSs. The main objective of the Safety Pool database is to build frameworks, processes, and infrastructures that are shared worldwide across the automotive industry, academia, and policymakers, to enable the transparent testing, validation, and certification of ADSs.

The initiative has already gathered consensus within the autonomous vehicle (AV) and ADAS communities and welcomes governments around the world to join them in bringing safety standards and certifications to their countries.

Members of the AV industry themselves are able to join the Safety Pool community and benefit from the database’s capabilities.

Since 2017, cars made by Audi have been able to warn each other about accidents, broken down vehicles, traffic jams, road ice, or limited visibility, a communication technology known as ‘car to X’. It analyzes various data for Local Hazard Information, including activation of Electronic Stabilization Control (ESC), rain and light sensors, windshield wipers, headlights, emergency calls, and airbag triggers.

Audi is the first manufacturer to use a patented solution from Swedish company NIRA Dynamics AB for this purpose. The two companies adapted this solution as a basis to develop the enhanced hazard alerts together with the Car.Software organization and HERE Technologies.

Within the car, the system can estimate the coefficient of friction between the tires and the road surface based on wheel slip. To calculate this, it uses chassis signals, such as wheel speed and acceleration values. It is already active in normal driving situations and not only during extreme situation when chassis control systems intervene. The sensor data is anonymized, both in the car itself and when transmitted to the cloud hosted by NIRA Dynamics AB. Aggregated data from many vehicles are then combined with metadata, such as current and historical weather information, and then transmitted by NIRA cloud to service provider HERE Technologies. When integrated with HERE location platform, the combined data intelligence represents the road network as a precise three-dimensional model.

Coming back to the vehicle, HERE servers send the warning information to those cars that are in or heading toward areas with poor conditions. The driver sees a warning in the Audi virtual cockpit or on the optional head-up display and can act accordingly.

Number of vehicles involved is a key success factor

The greater the number of vehicles that deliver the data, the better the system can learn, analyze, and create maps, and thereby inform or warn the drivers depending on the situation. This is the basic principle of swarm data and swarm intelligence – an area in which Audi has acquired extensive knowledge over the past years. . In 2021, more than 1.7 million vehicles from the Volkswagen Group in Europe will contribute data for this improved hazard information service, and this will increase to more than 3 million in 2022, creating a significant competitive advantage. The service is available in new models from Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT, Škoda, Porsche, Bentley, and Lamborghini.

The Parliament’s report follows the publication of the European Commission’s ten year road safety plan published back in June 2019, which was followed up with an outline of planned legislative measures in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy published in December last year.

The Parliament’s work on the report is being led by Elena Kountoura, a greek MEP from the Parliament’s “The Left” group, and a former Minister of Tourism.

ETSC will be advising MEPs on a range of areas, with a focus on interventions that deliver the most benefits in terms of reduced injury and death.

The new ratings encourage wider fitment of ADAS on commercial vans, show differences between brands in the systems’ performance and will help fleet operator and business owners to make safer choices. For the benefit of commercial van drivers and all road users, Euro NCAP calls for:

• Standardisation of safety equipment on commercial vans ahead of the General Safety Regulation which is still some years away
• Better performance of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) on commercial vans, to match the state-of-the-art technology fitted to cars
• Fleet operators to take responsibility for the safety of their drivers and to demand a minimum silver-level performance in Euro NCAP’s new ranking scheme when making purchasing decisions.
• Greater clarity from van manufacturers, on websites and in marketing material, regarding the safety features available on their vehicles.

The type of commercial vehicles tested by Euro NCAP are designed to transport goods or equipment and weigh no more than 3.5 metric tons (N1 category). They are known also known as Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) and a rating system has been developed to provide a simple way to compare the performance of the safety systems available on them. The driver-assistance systems tested were autonomous emergency braking (AEB), with separate tests for the system’s response to other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists; lane support, which helps to prevent the vehicle drifting out of lane; speed assistance, which helps the driver maintain a safe speed, appropriate for the road the vehicle is on; and occupant state monitoring, which can detect whether or not the van’s occupants are wearing their seatbelts and are in a fit state to drive. An overall score was given to the tested vehicles, from which their ranking was established.

In this round of tests, top achievers, the Ford Transit, Mercedes-Benz Vito, and VW Transporter, are awarded Gold.  The Ford Transit Custom, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro, Peugeot Expert and the VW Crafter are awarded Silver. Six more vans are given the Bronze award: the Citroën Jumper and the Jumpy, FIAT Ducato, Iveco Daily, Peugeot Boxer and the Toyota PROACE. At the bottom of the list are the FIAT Talento, Opel/Vauxhall Movano, Nissan NV400, the Renault Master and Renault Trafic. The latter vans are not recommended for their general lack of safety systems.

Regarding fitment of safety technologies, there are regional differences: systems that are standard in one country may be optional in others. And vehicles which are identical except for the badge on the front, also differ in the safety they offer: AEB is an option on the Renault Master but is not available on the Nissan NV-400, which comes off the same production line.

Based on Honda’s “Safety for Everyone” approach, all Accord models provide the Honda Sensing® suite of safety and driver-assistive technologies as standard equipment on all trim levels, including Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) with Pedestrian Detection; Forward CollisionWarning; Road Departure Mitigation (RDM) incorporating Lane Departure Warning (LDW); Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS); and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). Honda Sensing® is now standard or available on all new Honda models, equipped on nearly 4 million Honda vehicles on U.S. roads today.

All Honda vehicles also benefit from Honda’s proprietary Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, designed to help protect occupants in a wide variety of frontal collisions, along with advanced supplemental restraint systems.

To qualify for a 2020 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award, a vehicle must earn “GOOD” ratings in six crashworthiness evaluations, including the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. It also needs “ADVANCED” or “SUPERIOR” ratings for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention, as well as “ACCEPTABLE” or “GOOD” headlight ratings across all trim levels.

To maintain its third-party impartiality, UL has joined the Automotive Safety Council as a sponsoring member, a membership category reserved for companies or organizations associated with the advancement of automotive safety but does not directly provide automotive safety products, materials or equipment. As one of its first actions, UL is providing expertise by participating in a number of Automotive Safety Council subcommittees including those addressing safety, health and environment, and sensing and active safety.

UL’s membership in the Automotive Safety Council comes at a time when the automotive industry is in the midst of a paradigm shift. Increasing consumer expectations for connectivity, interoperability, transparency and safety, paired with new government regulations and rapid advancements in electric and autonomous vehicles, are pressing manufacturers and their suppliers to increase the speed of innovation while addressing safety issues to build and maintain the public’s trust.

Under the terms of the software-as-a-service agreement, the City of Irvine has access to the power of Iteris SPM, Iteris’ cloud-based automated traffic signal performance measures (ATSPM) solution, with features that will provide proactive operations and maintenance monitoring throughout the city.

Iteris SPM features include triggers for signal operations modifications, identification of traffic trends, before-and-after studies, maintenance advisory services, and 24/7/365 signalized intersection monitoring.

QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology is certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D, the automotive industry’s functional safety standard, is based on the safe data communication requirements identified in IEC 61508 and mitigation measures defined in AUTOSAR End-to-End communications protection profiles. QNX Black Channel Communications Technology makes the countless nodes of data communication in embedded systems functionally safe. By safely encapsulating the data being exchanged and validating it with essential safety checks, it protects data communication from systematic software faults, random hardware faults and transient faults while helping in the automatic prevention of damages from these failures, all with minimal impact on system performance.

QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology provides a safety layer to protect data being passed from point to point while being agnostic of the underlying communication software and hardware. With the functional safety standard development and certification already done, the solution enables automakers and other embedded software developers to accelerate their development timelines and reduce the cost in moving projects from research to production.

Select OEMs and Tier 1’s are currently utilizing QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology in their development of next generation automotive technology. The solution is scheduled for general availability in April 2020.

Safety Technology

In keeping with the brand’s safety platform, G80 applies standard active and passive safety systems, as part of a brand-level engineering commitment to passenger security. State-of-the-art, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) include:

• Highway Driving Assist II (HDA II) : This system helps assist the driver in a wider variety of situations than before, including during lane change maneuvers when the turn signal is used, and when others merge in front of you.
• Smart Cruise Control with Machine Learning (SCC-ML) : A world first, SCC-ML, as applied to the GV80 SUV earlier this year, incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) within the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) feature that helps the car to independently learn the driving characteristics of – and assist – its driver.
• Pre active Safety Seat (PSS) : This adjusts a passenger seat to a safe position by pulling the seat back forward in order to keep the passenger safe in the event of a forward collision or sudden braking/turning.
• Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist (FCA) : This system may help automatically bring G80 to a stop in certain situations where there is a risk of collision with an approaching vehicle detected on the left or right side of the intersection. G80 may also help detect potential collision risks in certain situations where a pedestrian is detected in close proximity to the vehicle while in motion, for example.
• Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance Assist (BCA) : BCA is essentially a Blind Spot Monitor with active capabilities. BCA helps reduce the chance of potential impact with a moving vehicle and may alert the driver if a vehicle is detected in the driver’s blind-spot. 

A complement of 10 air bags includes front and side airbags as well as a center airbag, between the front seat occupants, that helps prevent secondary contact between occupants in a side impact

In addition, the Genesis safety platform works to integrate communications between around 40 controllers in real time to help ensure the right response in various scenario.

The ROA is a device for preventing passengers from being left unattended in rear seats. In the past, the weight sensor of children’s car seats or the ultrasonic sensor were used in general. Hyundai Mobis vastly improved detection accuracy by replacing them with the radar sensor. It is expected to greatly help prevent heatstroke accidents caused every summer by children being left unattended in vehicles and other safety accidents.

If a passenger is left in the rear seat, the passenger detection system alerts the driver with the sound made when the door is closed, or through the instrument panel or smartphone. The system, developed by Hyundai Mobis, is known to have secured electromagnetic reliability so that it works normally near high-voltage lines and railroad tracks, and be precise enough to distinguish adults, infants and pets. Hyundai Mobis is planning to develop a radar capable of measuring the heartbeats of passengers and expand the biometric function this year.

You can find out more about driver monitoring technologies here

BSI automated vehicle standards programme publishes first safety requirements for road trials

BSI, in its roles as the UK’s National Standards Body, has released the first fast-tracked standard for testing connected and automated vehicles (CAV), as part of the world’s first CAV standardisation programme which is being run in conjunction with the UK government.

The specification, Assuring the Safety of Automated Vehicle Trials and Testing, sets out minimum requirements for managing safety during development testing and when trialling automated vehicles, such as driverless cars, both on and off public roads.

It is the first standardisation document, known as a Publicly Available Specification (PAS), to be published as part of BSI’s two-year CAV Standards Programme. The Programme is being delivered in conjunction with the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), Department for Transport, Innovate UK and Zenzic. It aims to accelerate the safe use of CAVs through guidance and technical standards.

As the UK positions itself as global centre for CAV development, PAS 1881 can help organisations involved in testing and public trials of CAVs to demonstrate that their safety case follows good practice. It will help provide confidence to insurers, authorities and the public.

BSI has been able to harness the experience of innovative CAV trials and testing already taking place in the UK to develop a world-leading fast-tracked standard, one of the first of its kind globally.  

This free to download document has been produced by a steering group made-up of organisations from the UK CAV eco-system, including TRL and other automotive and technology professionals.

PAS 1881 will supplement UK government’s own Code of Practice for trialling automated vehicles with core requirements for managing safety during trials and testing. It also complements the updated Safety Case Framework Report 2.0, also available today, created by Zenzic, the organisation dedicated to accelerating the self-driving revolution in the UK and TRL. The report offers high-level guidance and supporting processes to ensure a consistent approach to safety is adopted across the UK’s testbed ecosystem, in line with good practice and PAS 1881.

The launch coincides with the publication of a new vocabulary of key technical terms and definitions for the industry by BSI. The digital database will provide a much-needed touchstone for those involved in CAVs and its development has been designed to reflect the fast-changing nature of the market.

The second PAS from the Programme, PAS 1880, will create guidelines for assessing the safety of control systems in automated vehicles from driverless pods to full production vehicles. It is due to launch in March and will help companies designing automated vehicles for use in trials and on public roads to assess with more confidence the safety-levels of their end-product, systems and components.

DENSO’s efforts to increase road and pedestrian safety include:

• Investment in DENSO’s first Smart Mobility Ecosystem. Earlier this year, DENSO invested $1.42 million and partnered with a coalition of municipal, state, business and academic partners to launch its first Smart Mobility Ecosystem in Dublin, Ohio with the goal of enhancing transportation in the area. Here, DENSO is using blockchain technology to gather previously untapped roadway data, which is vital to increasing road and pedestrian safety.
• Development of vision sensors. DENSO developed a new standard vision sensor that can detect pedestrians, cyclists, objects and other road users for improved night driving safety. The sensor allows vehicles to automatically brake when objects are identified, reducing the risk of accidents. In 2018, DENSO released this technology in global markets.  
• Commitment to promoting cyclist and pedestrian safety. Just last month, the League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB) named DENSO a Business Champion of the Year for promoting cyclist safety throughout Michigan. DENSO earned this award through its sponsorship and distribution of 10,000 bike safety booklets and a partnership with Safe Kids Worldwide that provides young adults with comprehensive road safety toolkits, among other activities.
• Creation of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).From brake control systems to environment recognition technologies, DENSO has a long history of creating an array of ADAS technology that increases road safety. In fact, DENSO created the world’s first two-dimensional light detection and ranging (LIDAR), a device used in collision avoidance systems and which enables automated driving. DENSO has also released a retrofittable driver status monitor, a product that detects drowsy or distracted driving in commercial vehicles and voices alerts to prevent distracted driving, a leading cause of accidents and pedestrian fatalities.