Many automotive industry safety advocates have been pushing for greater market penetration for active safety and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), with the goal of zero deaths due to transportation crashes. In the U.S., they aim to reverse the unacceptable toll of road crashes, which account for at least 36,000 deaths, 2.5 million injuries, and $800 billion in direct and indirect economic and societal costs per year.
Analysis from one ADAS proponent, Consumer Reports, finds that existing vehicle safety technologies could cut road deaths in half—if they come standard on every vehicle. The publication’s study finds that widespread adoption of currently available crash-avoidance technologies and other existing safety systems could save upward of 20,000 lives annually.
With the automatic emergency braking mandate, every car from 2022 (and truck/sport utility vehicle from 2025) is going to have a major new ADAS feature, and others are expected to come as more ADAS systems get integrated and offered together. The fitment of more systems has rapidly growing implications for the collision repair and aftermarket modification industries.
There are numerous scenarios that depict potential legal, liability, and safety concerns that would result from improperly and incomplete sensor recalibration of ADAS including technicians who are unaware of sensor locations and the impact of repairs or modifications to aftermarket-modified and collision-repaired vehicles. Some insurance companies do not authorize or pay for ADAS compliance procedures. Vehicles with improper or incomplete ADAS system recalibrations will not work as intended, which may not be evident to the driver until a situation occurs that may result in a collision.
The industry is looking to SAE International—and its partner organizations like the Auto Care Association, Specialty Equipment Market Association, Equipment and Tool Institute, Society of Collision Repair Specialists, and Automotive Service Excellence—to help address these and other issues with recommended practices and ultimately standards to ease the transition to safer future mobility.
SAE just published an Edge Research Report written by industry expert John Waraniak, 2019 SAE Fellow, Founder of Have Blue, LLC, and former Vice President, Vehicle Technology at SEMA on the big-picture implications at “Unsettled Issues on Sensor Calibration for Automotive Aftermarket Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems.” At the organization’s biggest annual event being held this week called the SAE WCX Digital Summit, industry experts will discuss some of the key research insights of the report, other challenges, and potential solutions at a Leadership Summit Session on April 15th starting at 4:15 p.m.
The publication and session are considered the first steps toward clarifying the issues around aftermarket ADAS sensor calibration. SAE, with its newly created Active Safety ADAS Sensor Calibration Task Force, is now bringing together key stakeholders on the subject. Its goal is to develop improvements to existing ADAS sensor field-calibration procedures and many other challenges to improve the situation. Among these are standardized procedures and tools for forward-facing and 360-degree camera calibrations and visual static pattern-type targets; forward-, side-, and rear-facing radar calibration reflective targets; LiDAR object targets; and the aftermarket-modified vehicle procedures and requirements to reconfigure vehicles and calibrate them after a modification.
For more information on getting involved in helping with SAE International’s aftermarket ADAS sensor calibration efforts, contact Mark Zar.
