Meritor WABCO is now making its OnGuard Collision Mitigation System available for medium-duty trucks.
Offered for heavy-duty trucks since 2007, some 90,000 OnGuard systems are now in use across North America by over 200 fleets, noted Stephen Hampson, Meritor WABCO’s president and GM, in a statement.
OnGuard is a radar-based active safety system that offers collision warnings and collision mitigation with active braking, as well as adaptive cruise control. Hampson said it is designed to detects objects ahead and measures the vehicle's position in relation to others on the road to warn the driver of possible a rear-end collision by providing audible, visual and "haptic" or physical sensory warnings.
Furthermore, the OnGuard system is "always on" – monitoring the road ahead and providing warnings and active braking, even when the cruise control is not set. When a potentially dangerous driving scenario is detected, the collision mitigation system responds by sending warnings, automatically reducing engine torque and applying the foundation brakes if necessary.
Hampson added that heavy-duty truck fleets using the OnGuard package report a 65% to 87% percent reduction in accidents and up to an 89% reduction in accident costs due to the technology.