Integration Can Lower Safety System Costs

TROY, MI (Oct. 25, 2006) - Delphi Corp. showcased its portfolio of integrated safety systems to consumers and OEMs at the recent 2006 International Convergence Conference held in Detroit. The company says that based on extensive automotive industry s

Jan. 1, 2020

5 min read

TECHNOLOGY FOCUSIntegration Can Lower
Safety System Costs TROY, MI (Oct. 25, 2006) - Delphi Corp. showcased its portfolio of integrated safety systems to consumers and OEMs at the recent 2006 International Convergence Conference held in Detroit. The company says that based on extensive automotive industry studies, giving a driver just one extra second of warning time can help prevent many accidents. Delphi's vision is to place sensors on all four sides of the vehicle to help alert drivers and give them that additional time to react.

With integrated systems and components, such as the multiple-use camera, the cost of active safety systems on a vehicle can be reduced.
(Photo: Delphi Corp.)

Doing so cost-effectively also is important: "We know that cost is a barrier to bringing some advanced safety technologies to market, so we are looking at ways of making them less costly," says Robert Schumacher, a Delphi advanced product and business development executive. Integration, he notes, provides multiple safety functions without adding numerous different components.

One example is the company's single integrated Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) camera that provides multiple safety enhancements. The camera functions as lane departure warning, intelligent headlight control, active night vision and pedestrian recognition. The system also enables feature and functional growth in areas like road sign recognition, rain sensing, headlight rotation and integration with side alert.

Delphi's unique approach provides a scalable architecture that allows for a customized feature set using common hardware. In addition, a single camera also simplifies vehicle packaging while providing multisystem functionality. It also eliminates standalone products that can clutter the windshield or instrument panel.

The Forewarn Lane Departure Warning system helps alert drivers when they drift out of their intended lane. Using a camera and image processing to detect painted lane markers up to 25 meters ahead of the vehicle, the system determines the vehicle's heading and lateral position in the lane to provide the appropriate warning.
(Photo: Delphi Corp.)

Featured Delphi technologies enabled by CMOS camera include:

* Lane Departure Warning (LDW) - LDW helps alert drivers when lane markers are unintentionally crossed. A camera mounted behind the windshield detects roadway lane markings. Delphi's image processing algorithms and state estimation techniques detect and track lane boundaries.* Rain Sensing - The same camera operates the rain sensing function that activates wipers when moisture is detected on the windshield.* Intelligent Headlight Control (IHC) - Using the same camera for this control eliminates the existing day/night sensor. The system automatically dims headlights for oncoming traffic and when approaching vehicles from the rear. It also automatically activates the high beams according to lighting and traffic conditions.* Active Night Vision (ANV) - ANV uses near-infrared headlamps to illuminate the road scene ahead and the image that is displayed in the vehicle. This system provides more natural-looking images to the driver than thermal vision systems and allows non-thermal-intense objects like trees and lane markers to be visible. In addition, the system provides high-beam visibility without blinding on-coming traffic.

Compared to what drivers generally see at night (top), the Forewarn Active Night Vision system uses near-infrared illuminators, invisible to the naked eye, to illuminate the road ahead while an in-vehicle infrared-sensitive camera captures the image to provide the driver an enhanced image on the display.
(Photo: Delphi Corp.)

* Pedestrian Recognition - The camera also enables pedestrian recognition, a system that detects and classifies pedestrians. It predicts potential pedestrian impact and activates countermeasures to mitigate injuries. Pedestrian protection technologies are gaining much attention in Europe and other countries with densely populated cities.

Delphi's safety portfolio includes both passive safety and active safety products, to help protect and prevent accidents. Passive safety products include safety belts, airbags and antilock brakes, which are designed to help decrease injuries for vehicle occupants in a crash. Delphi's active safety products are designed to help prevent the accident from occurring. The products are all designed around the philosophy that the best accident is the one that never happens - but if an accident does occur, systems are in place to help protect the occupants.

Other Delphi safety products displayed at Convergence include:

* Forewarn Infrared Side Alert System - Motorists changing lanes or engaging in other maneuvers face challenges from blind spots that exist to the sides of most vehicles. While vehicle designers are working to eliminate these blind spots, the company's Forewarn Infrared Side Alert can detect a moving vehicle that enters the side blind spot. A visual alert is provided via an illuminated icon in the side view mirror.

The Forewarn Infrared Side Alert is designed to help drivers be aware of vehicles in their side blind spots when changing lanes and making turns.
(Photo: Delphi Corp.)* Forewarn Lane Departure Warning - According to NHTSA data, more than 40 percent of U.S. vehicle-related fatalities (more than 18,000 people) are caused by unintentional lane/road departure. The Forewarn vision-based Lane Departure Warning system is designed to alert the driver if the vehicle starts to drift out of its lanes. The system uses a digital camera, typically mounted in the rear view mirror housing, to look up to 25 meters ahead of the vehicle. This data is supplemented by vehicle speed and yaw data (so the computer knows whether the vehicle is turning) collected from other systems via the vehicle's high-speed data bus. Driver alerts can be visual, audible and tactile warnings or any combination of these and other options. (Source: Delphi Corp.)