Bendix launches driver-assistance system at MATS

March 26, 2015
The Wingman Fusion is a fully integrated system that features capabilities like stationary vehicle braking and overspeed alert and action.

Bendix Wingman Fusion, an integration of advanced safety technologies, is now available from Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC. The announcement was made Wednesday morning at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky.

Wingman Fusion combines a suite of Bendix advanced safety technologies – radar, camera, the vehicle’s brakes, and SafetyDirect by Bendix CVS – into a comprehensive driver-assistance system. With multiple sensors sharing and confirming situational data, the new Bendix system makes possible stationary vehicle braking, as well as overspeed alert and action. More data, combined with powerful new computing, also unlocks new levels of performance, significantly improving existing features.

“Wingman Fusion represents a pioneering technological stride that is far more than simply the collection of its parts,” said Scott Burkhart, Bendix vice president of sales, marketing and business development. “It offers an all-inclusive, better-performing safety option for fleets, which is supported by a single, leading-edge manufacturer with an 85-year history of making roads safer.”

Bendix Wingman Fusion integrates technology from road-tested, fleet-proven Bendix components and systems, including the Bendix ESP electronic stability program full-stability system, Bendix Wingman Advanced – a collision mitigation technology – and AutoVue lane departure warning system from Bendix CVS. Built on these existing technologies, Wingman Fusion gathers input through radar, video and the vehicle’s brakes, creating a highly detailed and accurate data picture that’s achievable through its deep, multi-system integration.

Wingman Fusion’s firsts

Wingman Fusion’s stationary vehicle braking capability is made possible by the use of combining both radar and camera data to confirm a vehicle ahead and is activated at speeds above 15 mph. When the system definitively recognizes a large, stationary, metallic, in-lane object as a vehicle, it notifies the driver up to 3.5 seconds before a potential impact. If the driver takes no action to avoid or mitigate this potentially severe impact, the system can automatically engage the brakes to assist in lessening the severity of, or possibly avoiding, a potential collision altogether. If the system’s data does not definitively recognize the stationary object as a vehicle, it will alert the driver up to three seconds ahead of a potential impact, with no automatic braking.

“The usefulness of stationary vehicle braking is best illustrated by imagining a stalled vehicle or a line of stopped traffic, which may not be immediately recognized by even a skilled, veteran driver,” said TJ Thomas, Bendix director of marketing and customer solutions, controls group. “Without Wingman Fusion’s automatic alert and braking, it may be too late to avert an impact.”

Wingman Fusion’s overspeed alert and action can be activated at 37 mph or above and uses the system’s camera to read roadside speed limit signs, working in tandem with Bendix ESP to alert the driver when the vehicle is travelling a specified amount over the posted limit.

The system provides two customizable levels of intervention: the first, initially set for 5 to 9 mph over the limit, is an audible warning; the second, if the vehicle is traveling 10 mph or more over the limit, is an audible alert accompanied by a one-second engine de-throttle.

Additionally, for level two, a severe-event notification is sent to the fleet’s back office through SafetyDirect, where it can be used for training and analysis. Fleets can use Bendix ACom diagnostic software to customize the level one and level two speed thresholds.

Building on success

By continuously gathering, sharing, and confirming information, Wingman Fusion uses its radar and camera together to identify potentially threatening objects, both stationary and moving. This significantly improves upon their individual performance, and substantially reduces false alerts or activations as they work together.

The radar unit detects the distance, speed and angle of objects in an area in front of the vehicle, covering roughly a 22-degree arc extending approximately 500’. The radar penetrates visually difficult conditions such as snow, rain, fog and smoke.

By comparison, the camera covers a slightly shorter but much wider arc – about 42 degrees by 300’ – and detects objects visually. The camera is powered by the Mobileye System-on-Chip EyeQ processor with advanced object detection algorithms adapted for commercial vehicle applications. Together, these components complement one another by determining the size, lane position and similarly critical characteristics of an object. The combination of these different technological inputs enables much of the advanced functionality of Wingman Fusion, resulting in better collision mitigation, alert prioritization, and integration of previously separate technologies.

When triggered by a slower-moving vehicle ahead, Wingman Fusion’s combined video, radar and brake data generate a faster response to the situation than a system relying on nonintegrated input could typically achieve.

With its data and computing already minimizing false alerts, Wingman Fusion has an alert prioritization feature. If multiple alerts are needed simultaneously – lane departure warning and impact alerts, for example – the system will arrange them in order of importance and deliver only the most crucial alert to the driver, minimizing the potential for distraction.

Following-distance alerts and lane departure warning are both integrated into Wingman Fusion as well to alert drivers to potentially hazardous situations. When driving too close to a forward vehicle, the system will sound an alert that silences when the gap with the forward vehicle grows. This feature is customizable to meet different fleet operational needs. Lane departure warning, powered by the camera, sounds an alert if the vehicle is traveling at or above 37 mph and departs its lane without activation of a turn signal.

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