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At LubeZone, we are proud to support our truckers by helping their rigs run smoothly keeping them safe while they get the job done right. Safety on the road is, without question, the most important part of driving a semi-truck, and as technology continues to advance, there are more and more safety features that are keeping truckers and all other drivers on the road safe from accidents.
Take a look below to read about ten safety features that we think every semi-truck should have to keep journeys safe and the risk of accidents low. It’s important to remember that no matter how many safety features your vehicle has, there is nothing better than a safe, alert, and well-trained driver at the wheel. Each of these tools will help keep you safer, and LubeZone thanks you for your dedication to safety and adherence to regulations to keep the industry rolling along!
Collision Avoidance Systems
Collision avoidance systems are becoming more and more common in passenger vehicles and have been making their way into semi-trucks for a few years now. These systems utilized radars, lasers, or AI-enabled cameras to monitor the road and look for situations that could potentially lead to a crash, such as when the truck is approaching a lead vehicle too quickly. The system will override the driver and hit the brakes in order to avoid the crash. Systems like these can be invaluable when it comes to things like motorcycles coming out of a blind spot, and the computer can react faster than the human brain may even be able to process when there is an unexpected obstacle.
The NHTSA found that these systems are very effective as both warning systems and mitigation tools that will actively avoid a collision if the driver is unable to act quickly enough. As these technologies continue to improve and advance, we can expect even more sophisticated accident avoidance controls in place that will keep making trucking safer for everyone.
Lane Departure Warnings
A lane departure warning system is another technology that has made its way into both passenger and commercial vehicles over the past decade. Through the use of forward-facing cameras, most often mounted at the top center of the windshield, the vehicle will alert a driver if the vehicle is drifting out of a lane without a turn signal activated, assuming that the driver has mistakenly begun to drift (or made the decision to change lanes without a blinker!).
Depending on the type of system, there are a number of different types of warnings: they may be haptic (vibrations or other tactile feedbacks), visual (projected onto a heads-up display on the windshield), or auditory with loud beeps. Some systems may also have an option to self-correct in these situations to make sure that the vehicle stays in the correct lane.
These systems are critical when considering the fact that, according to the FMCSA, single-vehicle crashes make up 22% of all fatal collisions. If these drivers had a warning or corrective system that would have helped them remain in the lane, the outcome may have been avoided.
Electronic Stability Control
Electronic stability control systems are designed to help a driver keep the vehicle in control in the event that they lose control of steering or begin to skid. The system involves a complex arrangement of monitors that will recognize if the vehicle is suddenly sliding sideways or skidding and will automatically apply the brakes to specific, individual wheels and reducing speed in order to correct the skid.
Blind Spot Monitors
As anyone who drives a semi-truck knows, there are massive blind spots that can swallow a whole passenger vehicle up — not to mention anything about motorcyclists, pedestrians, and others. A blind spot monitor has a camera pointed to these areas at all times and will push video to a monitor if there is something in the blind spot that is important for the driver to know about. These are really helpful systems even when taking a turn, and many blind spot monitors will turn on the camera while the turn is happening in order to provide the driver with more awareness.
Air Brakes
Air brakes are common in heavy vehicles like semi-trucks and offer a number of advantages that make the vehicle much safer. As the name suggests, they use air to apply the brakes instead of hydraulic fluid, which is most common in vehicles.
Air brakes offer exceptional liability and include a failsafe that will automatically stop the vehicle if the air pressure begins to drop below a critical level, therefore avoiding a situation where the brakes have fully failed and the driver is now operating a runaway vehicle. Secondly, air brakes are incredibly powerful and have no issue handling the heavyweights often pulled by semi-trucks. Finally, they offer better modulation than hydraulics, meaning a driver who is trained with air brakes has much more control over the force they are applying to braking, which can avoid lockups, skis, and other braking problems.
Backup Cameras
Backup cameras have not yet become standard in all new vehicles but we see this as being a popular feature in the future. When backing up any vehicle, but especially an 18-wheeler, there is a large blind spot that can lead to avoidable collisions. We believe that fleet managers will begin opting for this feature in the near future.
AI Fatigue Monitoring
A new, important technology that is being implemented is a driver-facing AI monitoring system that can keep track of a lot of different driver behaviors, one being their level of fatigue. While the Hours of Service are meant to help drivers avoid suffering from fatigue on the road, the reality is that there are many other factors in someone’s life that can make them tired that aren’t work-related. Driving while fatigued is, according to some studies, as dangerous as driving while intoxicated, so minimizing fatigue-based accidents is an important target in the trucking industry.
The AI system will look for certain cues like nodding, long blinks, eye positioning, and other indicators that a driver may be fatigued and will alert them of this situation. Some drivers may drive without even realizing how tired they are, only to nod off and accidentally drive off the road. Between accident mitigation systems, lane departure alerts, and fatigue monitoring, the entire situation is made much safer for the driver and everyone else on the road.
Dash Cameras
A dash camera is a great safety feature for a number of reasons, but one important benefit is for insurance purposes. For the entire history of driving, determining who was at fault for an accident would either happen because the accident was abundantly clear or it was the drivers’ words against each other as insurers and law enforcement tried to piece the events together. There have been countless innocent drivers who were wrongfully blamed for accidents, but since the advent of the dash camera, these situations are becoming more and more rare.
When you are in an accident with another driver who caused it but refuses to admit fault, you can simply play back the tape. High-end dash cams will record vital information on a small display, like the time of day, speed of the vehicle, and even GPS coordinates. Many record in-cab audio as well, and some cameras have a second lens pointed at the driver, which can be used to prove they were not doing anything risky like texting or eating at the time of the crash.
AI Safety Systems
AI is making its way into many areas of our lives, and semi-truck safety systems are one such area. These systems will integrate data from a number of sources, including the OBD system, engine monitors, speedometer information, strategically mounted cameras, and more. With all of these data sources, the AI will gain a holistic understanding of the vehicle and use all of this information to determine whether or not there is any critical safety issue that must be addressed.
The AI may integrate with collision avoidance systems, backup cameras, electronic stability control, and more in order to make lighting-fast decisions that will either avoid collisions outright or reduce the severity of a collision in a fraction of the time it would take a human brain to make the same chain of decisions.
Tire Pressure Monitors
Something as simple as a continuous monitoring system for your tire pressure can avoid serious accidents caused by a blowout. Yes, there are many different ways that a blowout can happen that go beyond issues with tire pressure, thats why its important to get your semi truck tires checked. Any opportunity to reduce risk and improve safety is welcome in the trucking industry, and this is one. Some advanced monitors will also provide real-time readings on tire temperature. When you have a system monitoring pressure and temperature, you can have a better chance of avoiding a major issue and addressing the problem before it’s too late.
Like all of the features mentioned above, a tire pressure monitor does not replace the need for hands-on safety measures like manually checking tire pressure, tread depth and wear, and more.