Advanced Driver Assistance Systems: How do they work and do you need them? - Part 1

Watching any mishap involving automobiles and loss of life or limb means one fatality or one life-threatening injury too many. 

One can argue this is the impetus for several car companies to further improve on protecting occupants in their vehicles.

Granted, most four-wheelers nowadays have:

• Disc brakes
• Anti-lock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution 
• Parking sensors
• Reverse gear-activated cameras (with viewing via the infotainment head unit)
• Automatic braking if the unit is on a hill during gear transition from rest
• Push button parking brakes
• LED headlights and foglights
• Airbags that reach up to the lateral part of a seven-seater utility vehicle’s third row

However, many road crashes seem to happen due to either the driver not seeing pedestrians or other motorists in blind spots at low speeds,  suddenly veering towards other lanes or a lack of depth perception.

Some automakers are trying to prove this with current safety technologies installed in their products, generally billed as safety suites. 

They go by many names, such as: 

• Advanced Driver Assistance System (Jaguar).
• Audi Pre Sense 360°
• Chevy Safety Assist (Chevrolet)
• Fiat Co-Driver Pack
• Ford Co-Pilot 360 Assist+
• Honda Sensing
• Hyundai SmartSense
• IQ Drive (Volkswagen)
• Kia DriveWise
• Lexus Safety System+ 3.0
• Mazda i-Activsense
• Mercedes-Benz PreSafe
• Mi-Pilot Assist (Mitsubishi)
• Nissan Safety Shield 360
• Subaru EyeSight
• Toyota Safety Sense

All told, these collective arrays of safety technology often highlight a “spidey sense” of impending danger and the necessary steps taken by the electronic cops to take down said danger.

Call it an invisible but intelligent front passenger aiding the driver or a “sight beyond sight” ability that attempts to prevent occupant risk proactively.

Yes, I'm referring to the Thundercats with that “sight beyond sight” ability of some safety suites from nameplates (not because I'm a grizzled veteran of many automotive event coverages). 

Given those safety suites are composed of occupant-priority features that rarely differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, this three-part story tries to break down the tech behind the tech and explain how each functions to add a layer of protection to your driving.

Adaptive cruise control

Meant more for highways and expressways than urban travel, adaptive cruise control (ACC) lets your car maintain a constant speed and set a driver-preferred distance (in terms of car lengths) between your vehicle and the immediate one in front.

Should the aforementioned pre-set distance be reduced, the car applies the brakes to maintain the pre-set gap (in case you forget to step on the middle pedal) and reduces throttle response simultaneously.

This is done via a radar incorporated into the front bumper and the driver’s inputs on preferred cruising speed and length from the nearest car in front via the steering wheel or infotainment head unit.

Information from this radar system and the driver’s presets are given to the car’s computer box, which acts accordingly to maintain a safe following distance. 

Kia has a version of ACC that relies on satellite navigation to slow down or speed up your car on turns to maintain the driver-preferred pre-set distance to the auto in front.

Billed as Navigation-Based Smart Cruise Control, this feature takes the appropriate steps to keep the distance between your car and the car in front constantly.

As such, your car’s computer box intervenes, even if your preferred cruising speed shortens the distance to the unit in front, should your vehicle and the car in front enter and exit a corner. 

Adaptive front-lighting

Now found in a growing number of cars, adaptive front lighting joins forces with a car’s auto-leveling headlights feature and original equipment headlights to shine light some 10-15 degrees further east, west, north, or south, depending on vehicle speed and steering wheel direction.

For example, Mazda's Adaptive Front-lighting System uses a motor mechanism inside the headlamp assembly to direct the light beam into a corner when turning. This lets the driver see better into the corner at night.

The system also aims the headlight beams downward when the car is loaded at the back, and the cargo and passengers' extra weight tilt the car's front end upwards. With adaptive front lighting, the system detects the tilt and compensates by pointing the beam downwards to avoid dazzling oncoming vehicles.

The main point of the system is to improve visibility at night, allowing drivers to react earlier to potential dangers on the road while keeping other drivers on the road safe as well.

Attention Assist

Also known as Attention Assist (Mercedes-Benz), Road Departure Mitigation (Honda), or Travel Assist (Volkswagen), the car’s computer box intervenes when a car’s sensors detect that there are no hands on the steering wheel, there's no acceleration or braking, no turn signals being used, and when the car is veering from its lane (or touching lane markings).

When the instances above occur, loud audiovisual warnings come from the gauge cluster. The infotainment and steering wheel vibrates at rapid intervals (like how telecom service providers give you smartphone alerts during typhoons and earthquakes).

One can turn off those warnings by taking hold of the steering wheel or tapping the throttle or brake pedals. 

This feature works in tandem with the adaptive cruise control so that your car maintains a constant speed and distance from the vehicle in front while ensuring it is in its lane. 

It has its limitations, though. The feature only works at rapid velocities, at some 60-100 km/h.

Hence, it’s only applicable when driving on expressways and highways.

Automatic high beams

Automatic high beams from headlights use the absence of light to automatically turn on the high light streams when the headlight stalk switch is turned on, there are no automobiles nor pedestrians within three car lengths, and the car is moving.

Once a front windshield camera (the same one used for lane keeping in most brands’ safety suites) detects incoming vehicles' headlights and living things on the road, the headlights switch to a constant low flash to avoid blinding fellow road users.

More advanced high-beam control systems use LED clusters to create low-beam areas for approaching cars or cars being followed on the road. This allows for a long throw of light away from other vehicles on the road. It also lights up roadsides at lower speeds so the driver can see impending danger and react earlier.

Blind spot detection

As its name implies, this feature uses cameras within the side mirror housings and the boot lid (or the rear windshield, in some cars) or sensors within the rear bumper to loudly alert the driver to what’s happening aft the vehicle.

Effective at 30 km/h onwards, the alert zones are half a meter to three meters sideways and three meters rearward. Those alert zones then widen to some 25 meters as forward velocity increases.

Faster vehicles in the extended zones will be detected farther away. Using a turn signal on the side of an identified vehicle brings up an audio alert when the system detects another vehicle at the blind spot. 

Please note this safety technology has limitations regarding what the cameras can see. Hence, it’s best to double-check your mirrors before changing lanes, especially when traveling in rainy weather or the car is dirty.

This is just the first of three informative safety stories designed to help you understand how Advanced Driver Assist Systems work. Knowing how they can help make your driving safer. Hopefully, that makes you more inclined to purchase a vehicle with ADAS than those without. 

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