ADAS — What is it and how does it work

ADAS — What is it and how does it work

ADAS Advanced Driver Assistance Systems is a general term that applies to all types of electronic systems that help a vehicle driver increase car safety and driving safety. Safety features like Adaptive Cruise Control, for example, “look” ahead and decrease cruise control speed automatically to keep you a safe distance behind other vehicles. Collision Avoidance systems detect objects in your path and slow or stop your vehicle to prevent an impact. The Lane Departure feature can identify lane marking and notify you as you begin to leave your lane without signaling. Blind Spot Monitoring notifies you as a vehicle enters your blind spot so you can avoid impact with that unseen vehicle.

How does ADAS work?

Each system ADAS systems uses one or more cameras, artificial intelligence, LIDAR and RADAR. ADAS is both a passive and active system. The passive portion works all the time the vehicle is in motion to alert the driver to a potentially dangerous situation. Because it’s passive, the driver must correct or compensate to correct the situation. For example, a Forward Collision Warning (FCW) system warns the driver it has detected conditions that indicate a collision is imminent. The driver must respond with steering and braking to avoid the collision.

An active ADAS feature like

Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB)

on the other hand, identifies the imminent collision and automatically applies the vehicle’s brakes to avoid the collision.

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)

is also an active system once it’s activated. It detects any slowdown in vehicles ahead of you and automatically decreases your cruising speed to maintain a safe distance between you and the other vehicles. ACC can be turned on in heavy traffic to avoid annoying speed up and slow down operation.

Lane Keeping Assist (LKA)

is an active safety feature that monitors lane markings and provides audible and vibration alerts to notify you that you’re veering from the lane. If you ignore the alerts, LKA will intercede and automatically steering the vehicle to keep it within the lane markings.

Traffic Jam Assist (TJA)

is a combination of both ACC and LC that operate under traffic jam conditions to adjust your speed and keep you centered in the lane.

Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR)

uses a single camera mounted on the windshield to read traffic signs, decipher their meaning and alert the driver if they are not following the instructions from the road signs. Not slowing down for a stop sign, for example, would trigger a driver alert.

Intelligent High-beam Control (IHC)

detects when conditions require the use of high beams and automatically returns to low beams when it detects oncoming cars.