Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), such as forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, camera-based mirrors, and blind-spot warning systems, are becoming commonplace on new Class 8 highway trucks. These systems are also gaining acceptance as options on some medium- and heavy-duty work trucks.
Exact take rates for ADAS are hard to pin down. ADAS on Class 8 on-highway tractors makes for a compelling and measurable use case. So much so, that the various ADAS systems are typically bundled and provided as standard equipment on the most popular heavy-duty freight haulers. So, a Class 8 OEM will tend to speak of overall acceptance rates by fleets, but not break it down into what percentage of fleets spec’ed, say, automatic engine braking or lane-keeping assist.
“The take rate for ADAS on-highway trucks is approximately 90%,” a Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) spokesperson told CCJ. That impressive figure no doubt reflects the positioning of DTNA’s Detroit Assurance suite of ADAS technologies as standard equipment on its Freightliner Class 8 Cascadia models equipped with a Detroit engine and Detroit DT12 or manual transmission.
“Gauging the popularity of a feature, or framing them in that manner, can be a somewhat ‘mysterious’ exercise,” said TJ Thomas, director, Marketing & Customer Solutions – Controls Group, for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, a major supplier of ADAS systems. “That’s because each truck manufacturer may implement differing feature sets of a technology, as applicable, over time. We encourage fleets to check with their OEM or dealer to determine what features and performance capabilities are available for a vehicle.”
For vocational trucks, regardless of GVW, not all ADAS options may offer a high enough return on investment to warrant spec’ing all of them in a given application or duty cycle. Systems such as adaptive cruise control and camera-based mirrors may be seen as superfluous on trucks that spend more time in the dirt than on the road.
However, studies clearly indicate that ADAS systems do greatly reduce on-highway truck crashes. The National Highway Administration (NHTSA) estimates that automatic emergency braking (AEB) alone could prevent more than 11,000 crashes, 7,700 injuries, and more than 170 deaths involving heavy vehicles.
Per FMCSA, researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute have found that, by themselves, lane-departure warning reduces crashes by 14%; electronic stability control by 19%; forward collision warning by 14%, and blind spot warning by 5%.
