Vehicle Development News - May 2019
Speed limiters to be mandatory
New rules provisionally agreed by the EU mean that speed limiters will become mandatory for all vehicles sold in Europe from 2022.
This is more than just limiting the top speed of a vehicle. It will be an Intelligent Speed Assistance’ (ISA) which, while it will not automatically apply the brakes, will limit engine power preventing the vehicle from accelerating past the current speed limit”.
There is an override function which would allow motorists to speed up should circumstances need it, but this could mean that stricter rules could be introduced in the future.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) says the limiters would reduce collisions by 30%, and save around 25,000 lives within 15 years.
Standardising Principles for Safety Systems
Three large car makers have formed a partnership to help create regulations and safety standards for autonomous vehiclesin the U.S.
GM, Ford and Toyota are partnering with the engineering group SAE to launch the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium in order to establish safety guiding principles to help inform standards of development.
The goal is to earn public trust with the continued deployment of AV pilots. This includes making sure there are proper systems in place for testing and ongoing interaction between people and systems, as well as the collection, protection, and sharing of data.
Even if car manufacturers do not merge their operations or development processes there are other areas to ensure commonality that are critical.
Citroen Aircross – safety up to a point
Citroen which has been struggling in the Australian market has just launched a new model the C3 Aircross, a small SUV shaped vehicle that only comes in two-wheel drive. And there’s just one model but with good features.
It has Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) but there is a catch. It only works up to 30km/h so there will be no five-star crash rating. This raises a critical point. Cars are advertised with various safety features but individual makes do not necessary give the same performance.
And Citroen’s tendancy for distinctive, some say eccentric looking cars?
Most notably The Aircross has a strong if somewhat blunt nose
It costs $33,000 plus on roads.
This year is the 100thanniversary of the founding of Citroen Motor Company.