A Q&A with Santa, and Fleet Manager Mrs Claus, of North Pole Inc
Here at Navman Wireless we're strong believers in implementing technology to improve vehicle and road safety. So it was interesting to see the recent announcement by the European Commission regarding the introduction of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB).
AEB systems use radar, lidar (laser) or video technology to initially warn the driver about impending frontal collisions and eventually performing an emergency stop.
The EC announcement has, in short, made it mandatory for commercial vehicles to have AEB fitted to gain European Type Approval from November 2013.
The benefits, both human and financial, of introducing AEB are made clear in an EC study. The study suggests that widespread adoption of AEB ??? albeit in passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles - could reduce accidents by up to 27 per cent, potentially saving 8,000 lives a year, and reduce costs as a result of these accidents by between ??3.9 billion and ??6.3 billion.
Philippe Jean of the EC, goes further by saying: "Our studies indicate that the resulting reduction in congestion due to accidents would represent an economic value of about ???100 million (??78.5m) in Germany alone."
The improvements that the implementation of this technology ??? or any crash avoidance technology ??? will bring to road safety and the financial benefits that it should return are great news for business owners. But as with any technological implementation we should be wary of thinking this is the be all and end all of road safety improvement.
The ultimate goal still has to be improving driver behaviour.
That's why we continue to champion the idea of improving driver behaviour and creating a safe driving culture on UK roads as the best way to improve road safety. If this can be achieved, it will make these crash avoidance technologies the safety net they should be and not a replacement for a well trained, highly skilled & conscientious driver.