COMUNICAR’s multimedia HMI design covers both the instrument panel and the display located in the middle of the cockpit.The interface integrates for the first time a broad range of messages, including the mandatory and traditional vehicle information such as the speedometer, rpm counter and warnings. It also manages innovative driver functions, such as frontal and lateral collision warnings from eSafety systems as well as telematic services for navigation, traffic information, phone and message facilities, and the entertainment system.
Smart
Mobilising European Efforts for Preventive Safety
PReVENT is a European automotive industry activity, co-funded by the European Commission, to contribute to road safety by developing and demonstrating preventive safety applications and technologies. PReVENT has over 50 partners, comprising industry (12 car manufacturers and 16 parts suppliers), public authorities, research
institutes, universities and other public and private bodies. Its total budget is €55 million, of which the Commission is contributing €29.8 million. PReVENT embraces sub-projects working on stand-alone systems as well as sub-projects conducting research into co-operative systems.
PReVENT envisions the early availability of advanced, next generation preventive and active safety applications and enabling technologies and an accelerated deployment on European roads.To this end, it is developing, demonstrating, testing and evaluating a wide range of preventive safety applications and systems. It is also building consensus and
co-operation between stakeholders to ensure their earliest possible implementation in Europe.
Activities are structured around a number of sub-projects undertaking research into:
- safe speed and safe following
- lateral support
- intersection safety and
- vulnerable road users and collision mitigation.
For instance, SASPENCE is developing an innovative system to help drivers keep a safe distance while driving. SAFELANE develops a lane keeping support system that operates safely and reliably in a wide range of adverse road and driving situations. LATERAL SAFE introduces a cluster of safety applications contributing to the prevention of lateral/rear related accidents and assisting the driver in adverse or low visibility conditions and blind spot areas. And the APALACI and COMPOSE sub-projects address complementary aspects in the field of collision mitigation and vulnerable road users.
In addition, PReVENT is sponsoring a series of ‘horizontal activities’ to remove barriers to market introduction. These include elaboration of a non-technical “Code of Practice” for development and testing of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) (sub-project RESPONSE 3); work to reduce the costs and complexity of map-based ADAS safety applications (sub-project MAPS&ADAS); and creation of a network of excellence on sensor data fusion, a key technology
for all eSafety applications (sub-project ProFusion).
PReVENT will enable European industry to further strengthen its position by introducing leading edge technologies while helping to reduce road accidents.
Co-operative Systems for Road Traffic Safety
While stand-alone driver assistance systems can have positive effects in terms of safety and traffic management, these benefits would be magnified many times if individual vehicles were able to communicate with each other or with the road infrastructure.
Hence, over recent years the emphasis in intelligent vehicle research has turned, as an extension of autonomous or stand-alone systems, to co-operative systems, in which the vehicles communicate with each other and/or with the infrastructure. Such co-operative systems have the potential to greatly increase the quality and reliabilityof information available about the vehicles, their location and the road environment, enabling improved and new services for the road users.
This, in turn, will lead to:
- Greater transport efficiency, by making better use of the capacity of the available infrastructure and by managing varying demands;
- Increased safety, by improving the quality and reliability
of information used by ADAS and allowing the implementation of advanced safety applications.
The following are examples of co-operative systems arising from European research.
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