When your car can save your life between semi-autonomous driving, cruise control and the Adas system

TREVISO. Where man is missing, technology can arrive and, in some cases, it can even save lives. Indeed, that electronics can intervene to help people is now a certainty. On the road it becomes tautology, because the systems available to cars today, i cosiddetti Adas (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems)are able to guarantee safety and often prevent accidents with potentially tragic outcomes.

The analysis of the types of impact shows that among the causes of fatal accidents there is the use of mobile phones and distraction, acts that involve going out alone and cause frontal or side impacts.

Starting from these problems it was developed an advanced system that uses cameras, radar, sensors, lidar (laser scanner), ultrasonic sensors precise on short distances, which work together with the on-board software to monitor driving and intervene in the event of an emergency.

The Adas, in fact. Those available to the cars that circulate on our roads today are semi-autonomous driving systems, defined as second level, and therefore allow some automation by the on-board electronics as long as the driver maintains vigilant attention and physical presence, in short, hands on the wheel while driving.

“These devices can positively affect driving and support the attention and ability of the driver to give greater safety to the person who is driving” he says Giorgio Sina, president of the car and motorcycle sector of Confcommercio Treviso, «They are very advanced systems that by now practically all machines have», at least the most important and basic ones. From 2024, however, it will be mandatory for cars to have all safety equipment as standard.

Video. The new automatic safety systems: that is, how the car can save your life

Specifically, alongside passive safety systems such as airbags, seat belts, ABS, ESP, ASR, the main active safety systems are: the automatic braking and anti-collision system, i.e. the one that allows you to brake, if the driver does not you notice that there is someone passing by, such as a pedestrian, a bicycle or when the previous car stops abruptly; lane maintenance, which is activated if the car swerves and goes over the line, then the steering wheel vibrates and brings the car back into the lane; speed systems, called adaptive cruise control, which allow you to set an adaptive drive to maintain a regular safety distance with respect to the vehicle in front.

If you get too close, the car brakes and emits a signal; driver fatigue and attention level detectors: if the driver is too tired, the machine detects and warns you to stopusually via an audible signal such as a beep.

Are they really life-saving tools?

«Of course», Sina declares confidently, «They guarantee the safety of the driver and more. It is a reality we can rely on because when we talk about self-adaptive systems, we are talking about a reality that is already current and present in machines. All of them must have systemsthe security, then some have more, others less. Obviously it is a free choice whether to use them, because you have to set them, but once done, the only obligation is to keep your hands on the steering wheel, because otherwise everything switches off ».

A practical example can be done with cruise control: «If you set the speed to 90 km / h on the ring road with the cruise control, the car always maintains the set speed. If the car in front brakes, the car brakes and then resumes the previously set speed of 90 km / h. A comfortable and safe system »describes the president.

To date, that of second-level autonomous driving systems is, to all intents and purposes, the first step towards total autonomous driving «Several car manufacturers are experimenting with it and it allows you to completely rely on the car, but at the moment we are not yet ready because we have to interface with the traffic factor. And then, in this period, the producers’ attention has shifted to ecology and electric machines, so we will have to wait a little longer ».

The future, with technology, would therefore seem brighter, just think of how many accidents committed due to the driver’s distraction can be avoided. The law has established that in recently registered cars, at least the road holding devices, assisted braking and other basic safety devices must be present.

These are already valuable aids in case of sudden danger, distraction or fatigue and, then, why do accidents continue to occur?

“There are still very few cars running with these systems. In Veneto, the car fleet in circulation is made up of 60% of cars over 10 years old. And therefore these devices are found only in part of the cars. Those who have a new car have them at their disposal, but those who drive a car that is 5 years old must rely only on themselves ».