What is Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS)?

Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) allows the automobile industry to ascend towards automation and safe driving. It can act as an extra pair of eyes for the drivers! 

The world is moving forward. Are you? 

Technology has advanced so much that driving, which was once a very complex task, has become slightly simpler. Even autonomous vehicles are not a pipe dream anymore. 

All because of Video Telematics and Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). 

In this blog, let’s look into Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and how this nifty technology helps vehicles go forward safely.

What Is Advanced Driver Assistance System ADAS?

While walking, it is simple to fend for yourself from any impact on any side from anywhere, right? It is only in very specific circumstances that you risk bumping into something, right? 

It’s not that you’re seeing everywhere, but you can just sense when something or someone enters your space. 

How cool would it be if you could drive in sensors as you walk, right? 

Well, now it is possible with ADAS.

Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is a set of functions that senses any current/possible activity in the vehicle’s vicinity with the help of dashcams and proximity sensors. By sending notifications and alerts regarding possible collisions, ADAS helps drivers have a safer and easier driving experience.

As you can see from the above definition, ADAS is:

• A set of electronic functions 
• Dependant on the data collected by the hardware
• Integrated with fleet management software 

Advanced driver-assistance system is the basis for building more vigilance and visibility of vehicles and others on the road to avoid collisions.

Get Assistance

How Does ADAS Work?

Seeing is believing. And that is exactly what ADAS helps drivers and managers do. 

Driving has become a much simpler ordeal because of dashcams. After all, drivers do not have to rely on mirrors and peek out of windows to approximate the distance between the vehicle and objects anymore. 

ADAS works through an intricate connection between hardware (proximity sensors and dashcams) and software (video telematics software or fleet management software).

Hardware picks up cues, such as the vehicle’s distance from the nearest surrounding. It can pick things such as other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic signals, obstructions, lane lines, etc. It then sends this data to the fleet management software in question, which in turn sends messages to drivers or managers, whoever is set to receive the notification through the software. 

In advanced systems, these signals can even lead to the vehicles responding and taking action to save it. These systems can trigger manual or automated vehicle responses such as braking, steering, etc. 

Types of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Alerts

ADAS is a very powerful function carried out by fleet management software’s video telematics system. Through the data collection, analysis, and integration process, you can get these notifications:

• Collision Warnings: The primary function of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is that it can warn vehicles of possible collisions. It can also alert managers if a collision has already happened. With the right sensors and cameras, ADAS can detect side, back, and front collisions effortlessly.

• Signal Violations: Through advanced driver assistance systems, both drivers and managers can be easily warned about any signal violations along the way. Therefore, with this alarm system, managers can urge their drivers to drive more responsibly. 

• Risky Driving: Instances of risky driving, i.e., lane switching and overspeeding are instantly caught through ADAS as it can calculate speed according to OBD data and relative visuals. 

Importance of Advanced Driver-assistance Systems

By now, it should be pretty clear that ADAS is a pretty powerful feature. To keep your fleet-centric business ahead of the competition, it is crucial to adopt new technology like ADAS. However, if you are still not convinced enough, let us look at the importance of ADAS:

• Safer Fleet: Once you integrate your fleet with ADAS, you can claim it as single-handedly responsible for keeping your vehicles safer on the road. It can pick up on cues and possible dangers and help drivers avoid most collisions occurring due to blind spots or inattention.

• Easier Driving: Driving has become a lower-bar activity due to ADAS. Now, instead of going through the complex network of mirrors inside the car, all drivers have to do is rely on ADAS to let them know when their vehicle is fast approaching an object or vice-versa. 

• Cost Savings: Since it functions through video telematics, advanced driver assistance systems retrieve visual proof of collisions. This way, if a driver is not at fault, they and your business cannot be falsely blamed. This can potentially save you a lot of money on insurance claims and nuclear verdicts. 
• Invaluable Data Collection: Video Telematics is exceptionally important in commercial fleets to collect all possible data. ADAS puts some perspective into that data to build better future plans and strategies. 

Where All Can ADAS Systems Be Applied in a Fleet?

Having an extra pair of eyes or extra sensory input while driving seems pretty cool, right? Well, wait till you see how this ability created through advanced driver assistance systems can be used in fleets – commercial or not. 

• Easier Parking: The extra vigilance especially comes in handy when parking a vehicle. When all required hardware is in place, advanced driver assistance systems ADAS can help by providing collision warnings. This way, parking the vehicle becomes easier and safer. 

• Adaptive Cruise Control: If the telematics system is advanced enough, ADAS can help maintain adaptive cruise control. What this does is that it manages the vehicle’s speed for the driver on a highway. Automatic speed changes can be done by keeping in mind the surrounding objects to the vehicle and the speed limits of the area. 

• Safer Night Driving: Especially in foggy areas, driving at night becomes dangerous due to low visibility. However, ADAS removes some risk from this situation as even if the driver cannot see a forthcoming object, the cameras and software will! 
• Autonomous Vehicles: The whole idea of autonomous driving is based on ADAS. Through this system, vehicles can detect their surroundings and hence, figure out how to navigate accordingly.

What Are the  Differences Between ADAS and Automated Driving

Automated driving in autonomous vehicles has been long speculated as something major to achieve in the automobile industry. While ADS plays a huge role in building an autonomous fleet, it is far from being automated driving itself. 

Let us look at the key differentiators:

• Meaning: Automatic driving is not vehicles being able to make some mechanical decisions themselves. Instead, it is the process of the entire vehicle being driven automatically without any human control. ADAS is a set of functions that can facilitate automatic vehicle reactions, but isn’t a complete automatic driving system in itself. 

• Key Functions: The whole point of automatic driving is that the vehicle moves and there is no human intervention required. ADAS, on the other hand, is mostly concerned with monitoring and surveillance. 

• Level of Control: The whole idea of automated driving is that it completely takes over the vehicle. ADAS, on the other hand, only helps enhance the driver’s capabilities. 

• Features: ADAS features some really cool functions such as lane departure warning, emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control. Automatic driving, on the other hand, comes with advanced features such as highway driving and automatic parking. 

• Technology Required: Sure, both automatic driving and ADAS need vehicle management software, video telematics, AI, and ML to function. However, automatic cars need much stronger versions of all these technologies along with very specialized vehicles and mechanisms. 

• Actionability: As we can see, ADAS is already here. It is already functioning in some form or level in a lot of commercial fleets and their fleet management software. Automatic driving, on the other hand, is something that is possible but will take some time to achieve. Sure, Level 2-3 autonomous vehicles already exist, but full;y automatic driving will take some time to take effect. 

Start Helping Your Vehicles and Drivers Now!

The world is moving forward – and so should you! 

The technical world is very fast-paced and the only way to stay ahead of the competition is by leveraging smart technology. Video telematics, ADAS, DMS, and more such features from fleet management software are crucial to help your business grow at full speed. 

So, what are you waiting for? Start working with reliable fleet management solutions with robust ADAS capabilities!

Get your demo here now.