Advanced Driver Assistance Systems were first introduced to motor vehicles as far back as 1948 when cruise control was invented by mechanical engineer Ralph Teetor.
His idea came from being frustrated while riding in a car driven by his lawyer, who kept speeding up and slowing down as he talked.
Even before then, planes and trains implemented antilock braking systems (ABS) to allow stopping without skidding. Eventually this was implemented in cars as a critical safety feature and today ABS and cruise control are standard equipment on virtually all makes and models.
In the last decade there has been an exponential increase in the ADAS features being offered by car makers due to improvements in technology, an increased safety focus and a reduction in costs to implement such systems as standard features.
Here is a high level look back at where ADAS began, and where it is likely to head with higher levels of autonomy.
Antilock Braking Systems (ABS)
The modern ABS system was invented by Mario Palazzetti (known as ‘Mister ABS’) in the Fiat Research Center. The system was called Antiskid and the patent was sold to Bosch who named it ABS.
ABS allows you to brake heavily without locking the wheels up, this allows you to stop in a shorter distance whilst retaining the ability to safely steer.
The concept for ABS predates the modern systems that were introduced in the 1950s. In 1908, for example, J.E. Francis introduced his ‘Slip Prevention Regulator for Rail Vehicles’.
In 1920 the French automobile and aircraft pioneer Gabriel Voisin experimented with systems that modulated the hydraulic braking pressure on his aircraft brakes to reduce the risk of tire slippage, as threshold braking on aircraft is nearly impossible.
Traction Control
The predecessor to electronic traction control systems are limited-slip differentials, which transfer a small amount of power to the non-slipping wheel. As far back as 1971 computer systems have been used to detect wheel spin and transfer power accordingly to provide the most traction.
Traction control works in conjunction with ABS to apply braking to wheels that have lost traction.
Blind Spot Monitoring
Volvo was the first to introduce a blind spot monitoring system in 2003.
The majority of blind spot monitoring systems consist of a radar in each corner of the rear bumper that detect vehicles as they approach from the rear. A warning light then displays in the side view mirror or on the dash to alert you of their presence.
If you turn your indicator on while the warning is present the system will notify you via an audible alarm. Some cars also vibrate the steering wheel or drivers seat to ensure the driver gets the warning in the case there are loud road or weather conditions present.
In some models the system has an active evasion feature, similar to lane keep assist, that will actively prevent you from steering towards the vehicle in your blind spot.
Adaptive Cruise Control
In 1992 Mitsubishi offered a lidar-based distance detection system that warned the driver about vehicles ahead, but didn’t apply throttle or brakes.
In 1995 they introduced a new system called Preview Distance Control that controlled speed through throttle control and downshifting, but not brakes.
Mercedes introduced Distronic in 1999 that adjusted the vehicle speed automatically to the car in front in order to maintain a safe distance to other cars on the road.
Six years later they were the first to offer full-speed-range adaptive cruise control, which can bring a vehicle to a full stop if needed.
Newer models now can automatically obey the speed limit (Active Speed Limit Assist, which uses cameras to read speed limit signs) and slow down to take curves working in conjunction with lane-centering to keep the vehicle in the middle of the lane.
Lane Departure Warning
Mitsubishi were the first again in 1992 to introduce a camera-operated system that could track lane markings and would alert the driver if it sensed the car was drifting out of its lane.
The technology behind the system hasn’t changed all that much in the many years since: a camera, usually mounted above the windscreen, scans the road ahead, recognising the dotted- or straight-line lane markings to the left and right of your car. Should you begin to stray onto or over the lines without using your indicator, the warning part kicks in, be it via an audible chime, a dash light or by sending a small vibration through the steering wheel.
Active Lane Keep Assist (Lane Centering)
It took a further 9 years before the technology evolved to the point where it was able to not only identify a human error, but also take steps to correct it. The Nissan Cima was the first vehicles in with Lane Keep Assist in 2001.
Lane Centering uses the electric power steering motor to counter-turn the wheel to keep your vehicle in the centre of the lane if it senses you are drifting out of your lane.
Driver Drowsiness Detection
In 2007, Volvo launched the world’s first Driver Drowsiness Detection system, Driver Alert Control. The system monitors the car’s movements and assesses whether the vehicle is being driven in a controlled or uncontrolled way. If the system detects a high risk of the driver being drowsy, the driver is alerted via an audible signal. Also, a text message appears in the car’s information display, alerting him or her with a coffee cup symbol to take a break. Additionally, the driver can continuously retrieve driving information from the car’s trip computer. The starting-point is five bars. The less consistent the driving, the fewer bars remain.
Automatic Parking
Automatic parallel parking was first developed for an electric car in the mid-1990s.
In 1992 Volkswagen proposed a system that used four-wheel steering to allow it to move sideways for parallel parking but no commercial version was ever offered. This concept has since been revisited by ROboMObil.
The Toyota Prius came with an automatic parallel parking capability in 2003, and in 2006 Lexus offered a version that does both parallel and angle parking.
There are numerous offerings of this technology in todays market from OEMs such as; Audi, Ford, Tesla, BMW, Jaguar, Volvo, Jeep and Volkswagen, among others.
Traffic Sign Recognition
The early traffic sign recognition systems relied on GPS data to determine the location of the car, and then cross reference with the information stored in the cars internal map database and display the speed limit on the instrument cluster.
In 2008 the Opal Insignia was the first car to use a camera based TSR system which actively read speed signs. It used a front-facing camera to read and temporarily display the posted speed limit.
For a good summary of how TSR works this is a great article:
https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/traffic-sign-recognition-explained
What’s Next
According to the SAE ‘Levels of Driving Automation’ we are seeing mostly level 0 – 2 ADAS features currently being offered in the market.
Numerous vehicles are already available with Level 3 features, which are considered ‘automated driving features’. An example of this is Tesla Autopilot, but there are numerous other offerings by competing OEMs, such as Volvo, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and even Hyundai.
The RAC Intellibus started vehicle trials in Perth back in 2016. This would be considered a Level 4 system. It won’t be long until we see more of these vehicle trials on public roads.
Once they have demonstrated they are safe and reliable and have government approval to operate we will start seeing a lot of Level 4 and Level 5 vehicles on our roads.
RAC Intellibus®: Driverless Vehicle Trial