Meritor Wabco Venture Adds Lane Warning System

Meritor Wabco Vehicle Control Systems recently introduced several new safety products, including a forward-looking lane-departure warning system and a roll-stability trailer system.

Jon Morrison, president of Meritor Wabco, Troy, Mich., and Mark Melletat, the company’s director for trailer systems/field operations, hosted a webinar Feb. 16 to demonstrate and explain the new products.

“This lane-departure warning system depends on a vision-based, forward-looking camera that tracks vehicles and monitors the road ahead,” Morrison said. “If the driver crosses a lane divider without using his turn signal, the system will remind the driver that he didn’t signal, even if nothing dangerous occurred, so that it encourages good habits to avoid a lot of warnings.”

Morrison added that it is easy to retrofit a truck with this equipment.

He also said that the Meritor Wabco joint venture had completed its previously announced agreement with Takata Corp., giving it exclusive distribution rights in North America for Takata’s SafeTraK system.

Takata Corp. is a global company based in Japan that began as a textile company but developed an automobile seat belt in the 1950s and then a child restraint system, turning the company’s focus to vehicle safety.

Takata’s website said it had 2011 revenue of more than $5 billion and sells many of its vehicle safety systems directly to “nearly every automotive manufacturer.”

The company said it operates 46 manufacturing locations in 17 countries and also runs 11 research and development locations on three continents. Takata employs more than 35,000 people globally, with more than 18,500 in North America.

“This vision-based system monitors the road ahead and audibly warns drivers if they unintentionally depart from a lane or the road,” Meritor Wabco said. “The SafeTraK LDW system alerts drivers of weaving, lane drifts or lane changes that occur without a turn-signal application by detecting and classifying lane markers on the road through a fully integrated, compact unit.”

“There are no devices examining the driver,” Morrison said. “Instead, the system takes in information from its equipment pointed outward and uses complicated algorithms to determine if the driver is driving normally.”

Morrison added that the system even can determine if the driver has become drowsy without examining the driver, using its monitoring systems only.

Meritor Wabco also introduced its Roll Stability Support 1M, which it described as a two-sensor, one-modulator system that combines the benefits of both anti-locking braking systems and trailer-stability control integrated into a single unit.

“Trailer rollovers are one of the most common truck accidents in the United States, with about 13,000 occurring on an annual basis,” Melletat said. “They are also one of the most costly, easily totally $85,000, but they can go up to $250,000.”

“Obviously, the human toll is even more important,” Melletat added. “Rollovers claim more professional driver lives than any other cause.”

“The system can measure various factors, such as excessive speed around ramps and curves, sudden swerving, fatigue, turning too sharply, and assisting the driver in controlling the vehicle,” Melletat added.

Melletat said that the system automatically accounts for the load status and calculates lateral acceleration while driving.

“If the system detects a potential rollover during the brake check process, a full brake application is put into effect,” Meritor Wabco said.

Melletat said that the system would work even better combined with a tractor that has an anti-rollover system.

Meritor Wabco also introduced an update for its 1200 Plus air dryer, which it first brought to market in 2009, to allow integration of the wet tank into the existing platform.