Automobiles are a critical pillar of the Indian supply chain. NITI Aayog estimates that the number of trucks plying on Indian roads is expected to quadruple — from 4 million in 2022 to roughly 17 million trucks by 2050. Therefore, as a business owner, safeguarding your trailers and cargo on the move should be a priority. It’s an imperative that should push you towards exposing your fleet to modern-day telematics solutions, especially Advanced Driver Assistance System or ADAS. In this post, we will discuss the benefits of ADAS or Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) while sharing its notable features and benefits. Let’s dive right into the content.
What is an Advanced Driver Assistance System?
Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is essentially a wide array of safety technologies and features that help fleet drivers operate trucks and fleet vehicles safely and more efficiently. ADAS technology comes loaded with cameras and sensors that work in conjunction with RADAR and other advanced technologies.
Advanced Driver Assistance System helps automate driver actions and prevent accidents or mitigate their severity. ADAS has been monumental in enhancing driver awareness, improving road safety, and reducing the likelihood of collisions.
To put it simply, the goal of using ADAS is to develop a safer driving environment for everybody on the road — be it motorists, passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists. As the technology boosts situational awareness and improves overall vehicle control, its implementation allows for increased supply chain efficiency and productivity.
What are the benefits of Advanced Driver Assistance System?
Advanced Driver Assistance System can benefit your logistics company in more ways than you can imagine. Here are some of the top benefits of ADAS you should know —
1. Helps avoid collision
The Advanced Driver Assistance System has historically reduced 47 percent of collisions since its widespread adoption. ADAS systems can track fleet vehicle’s blind spots and detect potential collisions with other vehicles, pedestrians, or obstacles while providing warnings or taking preventive measures, such as applying brakes or adjusting steering in order to avoid accidents.
2. Improves safety
On-road safety is crucial to meet the set supply chain deadlines. Fleet telematics solutions coupled with ADAS tend to improve driver and consignment safety. By alerting drivers to potential dangers and assisting in critical driving situations, ADAS significantly contributes to reducing the risk of accidents and injuries on the road.
3. Enhances driver awareness
ADAS systems monitor the vehicle’s surroundings and provide drivers with real-time information about their environment, including blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warnings, and rear cross-traffic alerts, which enhance driver awareness and help prevent accidents caused by human error.
4. Adjusts vehicle speed automatically
Drivers carrying cargo should maintain a safe distance from other vehicles on the road. ACC, a crucial aspect of ADAS, maintains a safe following distance from the vehicle ahead by automatically adjusting the vehicle’s speed. This feature also reduces driver fatigue, improves traffic flow, and enhances overall driving comfort.
5. Assists in traffic jams
Driving through thick traffic can have a significant impact on the driver’s performance as well as the vehicle’s functionality. This is because the vehicle might need to stop and move frequently. ADAS systems with traffic jam assistance functionality can automatically control the vehicle’s speed and steering in stop-and-go traffic, reducing driver stress and fatigue during congested driving conditions.
6. Provides parking assistance
ADAS offers various parking assistance features such as automatic parallel parking, parking space detection, and surround-view cameras, making parking manoeuvres easier, safer, and more efficient.
7. Improves fuel efficiency
Certain ADAS features, such as adaptive cruise control and predictive gear shifting, optimise vehicle performance and fuel consumption monitoring, leading to improved fleet fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.
8. Enhances overall driving comfort
ADAS systems can provide added comfort to drivers through features like adaptive headlights that adjust to road conditions, automatic climate control, and intelligent suspension systems that enhance ride quality.
9. Reduces insurance costs
Some insurance companies offer discounts for vehicles equipped with ADAS due to their proven ability to reduce the likelihood and severity of accidents, leading to lower insurance premiums for vehicle owners. At the same time, ADAS helps fleet transform driver behavior information into measurable data that can be used to determine insurance premiums. Such Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) integration can generate insights that help reduce insurance costs.
10. Leads to autonomous driving
ADAS technologies serve as building blocks for autonomous driving systems, laying the groundwork for future self-driving vehicles that have the potential to revolutionise transportation by offering increased safety, efficiency, and mobility options.
Top Features of an Advanced Driver Assistance System
Now that you are well-acquainted with benefits of ADAS, here are the top features that come loaded in a typical advanced driver assistance system. Let’s discuss them briefly —
Collision Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB)
This feature is used to alert fleet vehicle drivers of vehicles, pedestrians, and obstacles on the road in order to prevent potential collisions. The brakes are applied automatically if drivers don’t react in time.
Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Lane Keeping Assistance (LKA)
LDW helps alert the fleet driver when the vehicle drifts out of the lane without signaling. LKA assists the driver in steering the vehicle back into its lane.
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
Fleet drivers can maintain the vehicle’s safe speed while adjusting the distance from vehicles ahead. This feature helps accelerate or decelerate the vehicle as needed, even in stop-and-go traffic.
Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM)
BSM is highly useful for fleet drivers as most trucks have a blind spot that inhibits the drivers’ ability to detect potential hazards. BSM provides visual or audible alerts to prevent the same.
Rear Cross-Traffic Alert (RCTA)
RCTA is a feature that warns drivers of pedestrians or vehicles approaching the fleet vehicle. This is highly useful when reversing out of busy parking spaces or congested areas.
Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR)
TSR detects signage on the road like traffic signals, speed limit signs, stop signs, and no-entry signs. The information is displayed on the driver dashboard or HUD.
Automatic High Beam Control (AHB)
Switching between high and low beams automatically helps fleet drivers adjust the headlight beam in accordance with traffic conditions and surrounding vehicles.
Parking Assistance Systems
These include features such as automatic parallel parking, parking space detection, and 360-degree surround-view cameras to assist drivers during parking manoeuvres and reduce the risk of collisions with objects or other vehicles.
Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS)
Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) uses cameras and sensors to monitor the driver’s behaviour, alertness, and attentiveness. They can detect signs of drowsiness, distraction, or impairment and provide alerts to encourage safer driving practices.
Intersection Assistance
Some advanced ADAS systems offer intersection assistance features that can detect oncoming traffic, pedestrians, or cyclists when approaching intersections, providing warnings or assistance to help drivers navigate safely through complex traffic scenarios.
Impact of ADAS on Commercial Vehicles in India
- The global autonomous truck market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.6 percent.
- By 2027, the market is expected to reach USD 2,013.34 million. Citing such huge potential, the Indian government is supporting start-ups working in the autonomous trucking sector.
- The government is also building 26 green expressways that will facilitate increased operations of self-driving trucks.
- As companies push towards higher levels of ADAS, the country will also find it easier to overcome the shortage of 2.2 million truck drivers.
- Simultaneously, this will help save almost 40 percent of the cost of average freight movement.
Invest in Video Telematics solution
Now that you are well-acquainted with the Advanced Driver Assistance System, you must have understood how it can significantly impact the profitability and bottom line of your fleet operations. We highly recommend you invest in Video Telematics solutions that come loaded with a Driver Monitoring System and ADAS. Video Telematics solution by FleetRobo facilitates —
- Reduced accident costs
- Improved fuel efficiency
- Enhanced driver performance
- Optimised fleet management
- Enhanced corporate image and responsibility, and more.
Connect with our video telematics expert to learn how FleetRobo helps streamline and boost fleet management operations.
Final thoughts on the benefits of ADAS!
There you have it. We have shared everything you need to know about how the Driver Assistance System positively impacts fleet operations. In this post, we discussed the definition of ADAS, some of its most popular features, and different benefits of ADAS. You can check out our another article on how ADAS works for drivers improved productivity and satisfaction.
The future of ADAS is very interesting as the world is exposed to more sophisticated autonomous driving systems. How do you plan to introduce ADAS and video telematics to your fleet operations? We suggest you push towards building an ADAS-enabled fleet so you can run a safer and more profitable supply chain operation. Stay tuned for more informative posts in the future.