May is a busy month for the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) industry. Events demonstrating and promoting active safety systems are scheduled in the Netherlands and UK this month. In the UK, Thatcham, is organising an event in mid-May to introduce Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) technology to the media and decision-makers within insurers and fleet management companies. The meeting will be hosted by the InnovITS test facility within the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA).

AEB and Lane Departure Warning (LDW) systems are set to be mandated for trucks and buses in Europe, according to SBD’s recent report Kickstarting the mass market for ADAS ~ a review of the key market drivers. “It can be assumed that the European Commission will eventually expand the legislation to include fitment of AEB and LDW in private cars in the future,” says Stephen Longden, ITS and telematics specialist at SBD and author of the report. “In preparation for this, insurers and new car assessment programmes such as Euro NCAP are developing methodologies to evaluate active safety systems,” he adds.

SBD will be attending the Thatcham AEB event and initial impressions will be blogged on this website as part of our Safe Car research activities.

The Dutch government is hosting an Automotive Week in the Eindhoven region over May 14-22 that will include the first phase of its Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) organised by TNO, the Dutch research organisation. The GCDC event is set to include V2X systems from 11 teams:

A second week of GCDC competition is planned for September 2012. “Governments across Europe and other regions are increasingly interested in funding demonstrations and promotions of ADAS as technologies such as V2X are seen as a potentially significant method of reducing the number and severity of collisions,” notes Longden.To learn more about Kickstarting the mass market for ADAS ~ a review of the key market drivers contact Kavitha Kuppuswamy at kkuppuswamy@sbd.co.uk