Advanced Emergency Braking is to be fitted, as standard, to all stock Scania prime movers with outputs of 440 hp and above. The technology has been fitted to stock vehicles imported into Australia since the start of the third quarter of 2015. Scania reckons it is the first heavy vehicle importer in Australia to offer this latest generation safety equipment as standard on high output prime movers.
The Advanced Emergency Braking system is part of a safety upgrade, which also includes Lane Departure Warning and Adaptive Cruise Control. AEB integrates the radar and camera functions of both systems to provide autonomous emergency braking warning and intervention, to prevent two moving vehicles colliding, or the truck running into stationary traffic.
Fitted to all stock prime movers destined for regular line-haul and distribution work, with engine outputs of 440 hp and above, across the full P, G and R-series ranges of cabs, the AEB system can be specified for the majority of other on-road vehicles in the Scania truck range, where it is not fitted as standard.
“We wanted to offer our customers this potentially life-saving feature and so we made it standard on stock vehicles with outputs of 440 hp and above,” said Ian Butler, Scania Australia’s New Vehicle Technical Support Specialist. “We also engineered a full size bull bar locally that is compatible with the system’s radar, in association with Advanced Herd Bars, one of our national suppliers.”
The AEB system is able to autonomously slow the truck or bring it to a complete stop, if for some reason the driver fails to respond to circumstances which may lead to a collision.
“We believe this could be of significant benefit in preventing a possibly fatal accident occurring, should the driver fall asleep or be incapacitated for some reason,” said Butler.
Scania’s AEB is a driver aid only, and Scania vehicles may still be ordered without AEB, should customers elect not to utilise this safety system.
When activated, the Advanced Emergency Braking system offers three stages of protection:
Initially, when the system detects the possibility of a collision with a vehicle in front, it will sound an acoustic signal and illuminate a red warning light on the dashboard.
If the driver does not react, and the risk remains, the AEB system begins to apply the brakes gently.
If there is still no response, for instance if the driver has fallen asleep or has been incapacitated, then the AEB system applies the brakes with full force in order to attempt to avoid an impact with a slower moving or stationary vehicle that it has detected.
The driver can interrupt the warnings or braking by pressing the AEB switch on the instrument panel, or by applying the brake pedal, or alternatively if he judges it safer to take positive action, he may apply the accelerator pedal, including activating the kickdown, and steer away to avoid the impact. AEB is active at speeds in excess of 15 km/h.