The systems automatically detect dangerous traffic situations at road junctions and enable appropriate assistance for the driver in circumstances of relevance to safety. The driver receives a targeted audible and visual warning and the brake is briefly applied, but the driver always retains complete responsibility and has control of the vehicle.
“The Group’s own accident research has been able to analyse in relation to this that it is especially miscalculations of speed and distances, plus a failure to observe red lights or stop signs, that cause accidents with sometimes serious consequences. The Intersafe-2 project is therefore very important in order to ameliorate such situations in inner cities in the future,” stresses Professor Jürgen Leohold, Head of Volkswagen Group Research. “In light of the ongoing growth of urban mobility with all sorts of different people involved, plus social trends, such as the increasing age of society, the importance of assistance functions of this kind will become ever greater.”
Volkswagen Group Research has built a prototype on underpinned by the Passat CC, which is equipped with five assistance functions developed specifically for road junctions: left turn, right turn, intersection crossing, red light and stop sign assistants. If a driver breaks any of the appropriate rules of the road, these functions warn them in three stages of escalation: first an audible warning, then a visual one, and finally by a jerk on the brake.
To test the systems, the necessary equipment for detecting pedestrians and vehicles was installed at the junction of Breslauer Strasse and Wohltbergstrasse in Wolfsburg. The equipment consisted of laser scanners, infrared sensors and WLAN as the communications technology. This technology was tested for a future intersection assistant during recent months using specially equipped prototype vehicles.
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