There have been many technological advances in the trucking industry when it comes to the safety of the drivers and collision prevention. One of the new products that are available currently is a lane departure warning system.
These systems are designed to detect when the truck is getting out of the lane that it is currently in. This is done with the hope of minimizing collisions due to unwanted lane change. These systems are forward looking vision based systems that use an algorithm to interpret video images to determine the vehicles lateral position, velocity, and roadway alignment. They are designed to alert the driver with visual or audible warning when the truck is changing lanes without the use of a blinker.
The systems main video image feed comes from a camera that is mounted on the dash of the truck and that faces forward through the windshield. This camera sends the information that it receives to centrally locates receiver that will interpret the video image received in an attempt to determine the vehicles velocity, lane position, and roadway alignment.
The use of these systems can potentially prevent a large percentage of the commercial truck accidents that happen. Often time commercial trucks will drift off of the road and upon hitting the shoulder, roll over. In these types of situations there is frequent injury involved.
This technology has already been seen on many new automobiles that are on the market. Now being available to the regular public for direct purchase at a cost between $1,000 and $2,000 it is a reasonable investment that many commercial truck drivers can make.
1/27/11
Lane Departure Warning Systems
