Volvo Proposes Active Safety System Designed to Prevent Unintended Lane Departure

    TROY, Mich., Feb. 17 -- What do cell phones, small children,
lack of sleep and daydreaming have in common?  They all are things that
distract drivers from their main objective:  to arrive safely at one's
destination.  Many accidents are caused by drivers' lack of attention to the
road ahead.  Before they realize it, they have left their intended lane and
can't regain control of their vehicle.
    Volvo Car Corporation will unveil an active safety system to prevent
unintended lane departures during the SAE 2003 World Congress, March 3-6, Cobo
Center, Detroit, Michigan, USA.  The Volvo Lane Departure Module consists of a
camera with image processing software that detects current lane position.  The
camera measures distances from the camera centerline to the left and right
lane markings.
    If a driver mismanages steering control, the torque of the steering wheel
is designed to guide the driver back to the appropriate steering wheel angle
required to come back in the lane.  "Results from test drives indicate that,
despite its simplicity, the system is fully sufficient for helping drivers
stay in the lane without being perceived as an autopilot," says Jochen Pohl,
Volvo Car Corporation and an author of the SAE technical paper.
    A common existing approach to mediating lane departure today is the use of
"rumble strips" - grooved pavement markings that alert the driver by causing a
loud noise and vibration when the vehicle leaves its lane.  Rumble strips only
warn the driver after he has departed the lane.  In many situations, this kind
of warning comes too late, and the driver is not able to recover vehicle
control.
    The Volvo system is designed to give the driver time to regain control of
the vehicle before an accident occurs.  Development of a Haptic Intervention
System for Unintended Lane Departure (SAE paper 2003-01-0282), will take place
at 2:30 p.m., Monday, March 3, Room D2-15.
    New to the SAE 2003 World Congress: DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General
Motors will hold corporate engineering meetings at Cobo followed by VIP tours
of the SAE 2003 exhibit floor; a Technology Theater on the exhibit floor, home
to executive panel discussions throughout the week; and a re-categorized
technical session program.
    SAE World Congress, the world's largest showcase of automotive engineering
technologies, attracts attendees from more than 40 countries.  This year's
host company is DaimlerChrysler.
    To attend, visit http://www.sae.org or call 1-877-SAE-CONG (723-2664); outside
the U.S. and Canada, call 1-724-772-4027.