Truckers, Fleet Operators to Get 1st Generation of ‘Smart’ Vehicles

Collision-avoidance radar, night vision and satellite-based navigation systems are the newest gadgets designed to make daily commutes safer and easier, but auto makers say truckers and rental fleet operators will get them first.

The sophisticated electronic gadgets are part of Detroit’s next generation of safety devices, supplementing today’s air bags and anti-lock brakes. They are largely designed to alert drivers to accident threats, such as a slow-moving car hidden by rain and fog.

“Our aim is to give the driver time. Time to react, time to steer clear,” said C. Michael Armstrong, chairman and chief executive officer of GM Hughes Electronics Corp., a unit of General Motors Corp.

GM Hughes’ Delco Electronics unit is developing such radar and infrared-based warning systems that could reach the consumer market during the next two years.

Those and other devices will be tested in the commercial truck and auto rental fleet markets first, industry executives said at the Convergence ’94 automotive electronics conference here last week.

Delco is now selling a version of its radar warning system, called FOREWARN, to school bus operators for about $2,000. The system detects objects in front of the bus, such as small children or animals.

Next year, a radar-based warning system will be sold to semi-trailer truck operators and will include a critical side-detection function. And GM Hughes is testing an infrared-based night vision system, similar to those used in the Gulf War, with police agencies.

“It’s too expensive for consumer consumption, but you’ve got to start someplace to prove it,” Armstrong said.

The commercial users can more easily afford the current systems’ prices and can see a more immediate economic benefit from their use, he added.

“We think the magic price threshold is about the $500 to $600 range,” said Roger Stevens, general manager of Rockwell International Corp.’s automotive electronics. That’s the level Rockwell hopes to bring its PathMaster navigational system down to in order to sell large unit volumes.

The system, now being installed in some Avis rental cars, uses a global positioning satellite receiver to determine the vehicle’s location and provide computerized maps and turn-by-turn instructions to drivers via a small, dash-mounted screen and keypad.

PathMaster will go on sale to the public in several months.