During a press conference at the 2015 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems announced its new Bendix Wingman Fusion, the company’s next generation in active safety systems.
Wingman Fusion integrates three of the company’s existing component technologies — Bendix ESP Electronic Stability Program full-stability system, Bendix Wingman Advanced collision mitigation technology and AutoVue lane departure warning system – into a single driver assistance system. By combining these components and having multiple sensors sharing situational data, Wingman Fusion offers driver assistance with lane departure warning, overspeed alerts and action, following distance alerts with enhanced collision mitigation and stationary vehicle braking. By combining these systems, Bendix says Wingman Fusion can reduce the vehicle’s speed up to twice as much in a potential collision situation when compared to non-integrated systems.
“A fleet can buy separate radar and camera systems right now, but what it comes down to is the integration of the data,” said TJ Thomas, director of marketing and customer solutions for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems. “This next-generation camera talks to the next-generation radar that talks to the next-generation braking system in a way that isn’t in our industry today.”
Wingman Fusion can deliver five different alerts to the driver, however the system prioritizes alerts depending on the situation. For example, if it detects a lane departure and an unsafe following distance, the system deems the potential collision as the most critical event and issues a collision alert to the driver rather than distracting or confusing him with multiple alerts.
Wingman Fusion’s new stationary vehicle braking technology uses both radar and camera data to confirm a stopped vehicle ahead and warns the driver up to 3.5 seconds before impact and automatically engages the brakes if the driver doesn’t take action.
