Tom Rule likes to think that all his 600 truckers — who often drive cross-country with an 80,000-pound tanker full of cryogenic liquid or compressed gas — can keep their rigs on the road.
But Rule, a vice president at Logex Corp., which delivers gases that fuel the space shuttle and the oxygen used in hospitals, knows it’s easy for a driver to get sleepy or distracted — and drift out of his lane.
So by now, 50 of the company’s 350 trucks should be equipped with a device that helps keep their drivers between lane lines.
And if all goes as planned, the Anaheim, Calif., company that has developed the system says the unit — which fits in the palm of your hand — may show up next year on luxury passenger cars.
Called the AutoVue Lane Departure Warning System, the device — developed by Iteris Inc. and DaimlerChrysler — is mounted on a truck’s windshield. It houses a tiny camera, computer and software that tracks the difference between the road and visible lane markings.
It works on any road that has visible lane markings, even if there’s only one.
AutoVue, in use for about two years on 3,000 commercial trucks in Europe and in the United States, acts as an alarm. Drift into another lane, and the unit sends an audible warning that sounds like a car driving over a rumble strip. The warning sounds in the vehicle’s left speaker if the truck drifts left of center, or right speaker if it makes an inadvertent shift over lane lines to the right.
Clicking on the turn signal to make a lane change doesn’t trigger the alarm. Instead, the system simply recognizes the driver is making a proper lane change.
The device can be set to go off at various speeds and distances from the lane. On a local test drive outside the Iteris office in Anaheim, the device sounded as soon as a driver veered out of the lane going 45 miles per hour.
Rule, who has been in the transportation business for 40 years, thinks the Iteris unit will cut down on accidents caused by driver fatigue. "It increases awareness, so that you can now pull over and take a rest."
More than 43 percent of fatal accidents reported in 2001 involved a lane or road departure, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And in many accidents, driver fatigue or distraction played a major role.
"We believe there could be 25 to 50 percent accident reduction of run-off-the road accidents by using it," says Francis Memole, an Iteris vice president.
Next year, the lane-departure system should be available as an option on some luxury passenger vehicles, Memole said.
In mid-October, Iteris signed a deal with Paris-based Valeo, a major automotive supplier to automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, General Motors, and Daimler-Chrysler, to work with manufacturers to add the system on some models.
Right now, the device costs about $1,800 to $2,000 to install on trucks, Rule said. Memole didn’t want to estimate an initial cost for the system’s debut on passenger vehicles. However, once the system is in wide production — three to five years from now — consumers could expect to pay $200 to $300, he said.
Currently, there are no other lane-departure systems on the market for passenger vehicles, although some German firms are developing prototypes, Memole said.
Industry watchers say that while consumers have an appetite for some safety devices, they’re not slam-dunk sales.
"If it is something that a mom thinks she needs on a minivan, maybe they’d spend the extra money," says George Peterson, president of Tustin, Calif.-based AutoPacific, which tracks the automotive industry. "If there is no demand for it, it will take a long time for you to establish a marketplace."
Initial reaction among drivers in focus groups has been, "I don’t need it, but my son or another family member does,’ " Memole said. However, after driving with the system, they realize how much more aware they are about lane changes, and they like it, he said.
Rule — the trucking veteran — thinks AutoVue will slowly catch on by word of mouth in his industry. "I’m a safety advocate. There’s not enough being done right now. I think it will help reduce accidents, but the second part is to see how to get more trucks outfitted."
