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01/11/2011
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Governments worldwide are battling against the number of deaths and injuries on their roads, which are now soaring to worrying new highs. Ian Adcock reports
 It's a sobering thought that, by 2030, road traffic accidents as a cause of death will have overtaken various cancers, diabetes, heart disease and HIV/AIDS, climbing from ninth in 2004 to fifth in the global statistics.
So it should come as no surprise to learn that governments around the world are aggressively tackling this alarming growth in road injuries and fatalities. While much of this increase is due to the rapidly increasing mobilisation of emerging markets and the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the USA, Europe and Japan are also making concerted efforts to reduce traffic related injuries and deaths.
Japan is targeting to have 'the safest roads in the world' by around 2015, while the European Union wants to cut road deaths in Europe by half in the next decade. While Brazil is making ABS mandatory in 2014, China – which Josef Pickenham, TRW's vice president braking engineering, sees as "the dominant market" – could go
beyond that.
"The next stage of safety developments will involve the adoption of intelligent solutions in established markets and a much compressed timetable for the adoption of safety systems in emerging markets," stated Pickenham, speaking at a recent technical seminar and demonstration day. With this aggressive adoption of safety systems, it's hardly surprising to learn that they accounted for 89% of TRW's 2010 sales of $14.4 billion.
Cost factor
However, as Martin Thoone, TRW's vice president of global electronics engineering emphasised, the universal adoption of electronic safety technologies will only be achieved, if the systems are cheap enough, especially in inexpensive cars that will be the staple diet of many BRIC consumers. "Today, electronics represent 25% of the cost of an average car and that will increase to 29% in three years. In premium cars, the percentage is even higher."
Optimising the cost of components like 24GHz radar, and intelligent use of existing sensors and systems, together with higher levels of integration, will help contain costs and allow OEMs to install accident mitigation systems across a wide product portfolio in Europe, North America, the Far East and the BRIC nations. Here are some of TRW's future technologies that the supplier hopes will lead to safer motoring in the near term.
Active buckle lifter
At first sight, this might not appear to be much of a safety development. However, by raising the buckle up to 70mm to meet the occupants as they sit, this improves accessibility in vehicles with large centre consoles and benefits occupants with restricted mobility.
With its dynamic support mode that will retract the belt by up to 40mm, it secures the occupant into the seat under hard cornering with higher lateral forces. The belt can also be linked into the automatic emergency braking system for pre-tensioning, prior to an impact. In practice, the tightening belt feels less intrusive than the reel-based systems, which have a tendency to pull on the shoulder. It would also likely feel more comfortable to women.
Future brake system
Reviewed in Automotive Design's IAA report, Future Brake Systems (FBS) eliminates the traditional vacuum booster, replacing it with a rapid brushless motor developed from TRW's electric power-assisted steering. Up to 4Kgs lighter than a conventional brake system, it also offers packaging benefits in both ICE and hybrid or electric vehicles.
Under test conditions, there's little perceptible difference in pedal feel between electric or vacuum assisted brakes and, of course, the OEM can tune the feel to its own brand identity.
The big differentiator is under emergency stops where the brakes react more rapidly, initiating the ABS earlier and, just as importantly, the same brake pressure is always delivered, irrespective of how hard the pedal is depressed.
It all makes sense
A hybrid indirect TPMS that combines sensing technologies to provide automatic location functionality was also revealed. It achieves its lower cost by using four basic wheel-mounted sensors to monitor individual tyre pressure, but eliminates the need for electronic initiators that, up until now, were required to locate under-inflated tyres. Instead, it uses the ABS sensors and unique software to determine tyres at the incorrect pressure and then notify the driver via warning lights in the instrument panel.
Hybrid Tyre Pressure Monitoring is becoming increasingly common.
Audi is one OEM testing the Active buckle lifter, but in a rear seat application.
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Author
Ian Adcock
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