The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a notice in the Federal Register soliciting comments on Heavy Vehicle Collision Warning Interfaces.
Written comments should be submitted on or before July 6, 2016.
Crash warning systems (CWSs) for commercial motor vehicles have been available for more than 20 years. CWSs can include features such as forward collision and lane departure warnings and use a variety of sensor technologies (e.g., radar) to determine the crash risk of a collision. CWSs are designed to warn the driver to take action to avoid or mitigate a potential crash.
CWSs are available as both options from OEMs and as aftermarket/retrofit devices. While there are certain similarities between offerings within a particular CWS product class (e.g., forward collision warning (FCW)), there are also differences in how suppliers present collision warnings, including the design of visual displays and auditory alerts. Typically, suppliers will use a combination of visual and audio modalities to convey a potential crash situation to the driver.
However, their implementations vary across factors such as the visual interface, auditory alert, and the salience of alerts. While CWS implementations change and evolve, it is likely that certain warning interfaces are more effective than others during crash-imminent situations. This research seeks to examine the impact of CWSs as they pertain to commercial motor vehicle safety. The primary goal of this effort is to evaluate CWSs and assess the effectiveness of these driver-vehicle interfaces for heavy trucks and motorcoaches.