When I spoke recently to a group of collision repair shops, part of my presentation focused on the fascinating advances companies like Volvo, Cadillac and Mercedes are making in collision avoidance technology. After I finished, it was hard not to notice the deflated look on the faces of my audience. One member of the crowd even asked, “Don’t you have any good news?” Well, yes, there is plenty of good news out there for collision repairers, and I can also assure you there will always be car crashes, no matter how much technology we put on cars. Still, there seems to be a pervasive fear that technology will ultimately put us out of business. A closer look at the topic should help put those fears to rest.
While it is important to understand what is currently being offered in the way of collision avoidance and what is coming in the near term, it is also vital to understand how quickly this technology will be included on the majority of U.S. cars. Let’s examine the two basic types of accident avoidance technology and then look at how quickly it will enter the U.S. car parc.
Active and passive technology
Accident avoidance technology is, at its core, either active or passive. Active means the evasive action, like full braking or even steering, will be done automatically without driver input. Passive means the vehicle’s technology will only perform an audio or visual warning of an impending hazard and the driver will have to take it from there. Back-up cameras and blind spot warning systems are good examples of passive and far-from-foolproof technology. Let’s take a look at what can go wrong:
- Back-up cameras are quite handy, but lack the ability to scan wide areas to the side of a backing vehicle. Most systems come with a warning on the screen to “check the surrounding area” to avoid collisions with vehicles coming from the side. The cameras often are in areas that are susceptible to road grime, reducing the clarity of the image. One engineer I spoke with about the shortcomings of back-up cameras quipped, “It gives you a great view of what you just hit.”
- Next to back-up cameras, blind spot warning systems are the most common accident avoidance system found on vehicles today. The technology can be found on SUVs and minivans, as well as on luxury vehicles. But the system is so fraught with false alarms, dealer service writers say it is the most common item that vehicle owners want to disable.
Active systems like Volvo’s Traffic Jam Assistance or Nissan’s Autonomous Emergency Steering System both provide for autonomous braking and steering of a vehicle, but the goals are a bit different. Traffic Jam Assistance, an outgrowth of Volvo’s Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keep Aid technology, will allow a car to automatically follow the vehicle in front at low speeds. Both systems will allow a car to act on its own in limited circumstances, but Traffic Jam Assistance will give the vehicle more control. Like Adaptive Cruise Control, Traffic Jam Assistance maintains a set distance from the car in front; however, the new system works at slower speeds (under 31 mph). When the system is used, a car can accelerate, steer and brake itself without any driver involvement by following the actions of the vehicle in front of it. At this point, I naturally thought of the age-old peer pressure admonition from parents: if everyone jumps off a cliff, would you do it, too? In other words, if you were following a car whose owner was having a really bad day and wanted to end it all, would your Volvo follow? To that, Volvo engineers insist the Volvo driver can take control at any time.
Nissan’s Autonomous Emergency Steering System does what the name says. Cameras and a combination of radar and laser scanners capture a constantly evolving picture of the car’s surroundings. An onboard computer processes the data, continuously searching for potential accidents and for safe, obstruction-free escape paths. When an accident is imminent and the computer determines collision is unavoidable by braking alone, the motor in the electric-assist power steering rack acts on its own with no input from the driver. As with the Volvo, if a Nissan driver has a firm grip on the wheel, the resistance will be enough to override the autonomous avoidance maneuver.
The downside of both systems? Because both rely on scanners and cameras, cleanliness of the lenses is of utmost importance for the systems to work properly. And, just as it does with the human eye, the angle of the sun shining on the sensors can cause the system to fail. You can see it in action, and learn some interesting curse words in Swedish by Googling “Volvo crash fail.”
The collision repair Industry is safe
I hope I have addressed the various shortcomings of the systems available by demonstrating that when humans are involved, accidents will happen. But more important is how long it will take before these systems will be found on a majority of vehicles in the U.S. car parc. Remember that the average age of a vehicle on the road in the U.S. is more than 11 years, and none of these systems are mandatory nor are they standard equipment in most cases. The best and brightest at the Highway Loss Data Institute predict it will be decades before we see these systems on the majority of vehicles on the road. In other words, don’t switch careers just yet.
