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Worn Tires Caused Accident? Prevost Aware?
I’m sure you’re aware of the reports of the horrific bus crash that took the lives of the driver, 12 passengers and injured 30 others. Based on early reports it appears the brakes were never applied. While the NTSB is conducting an investigation, I found this story from NBC News interesting if not misleading.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/worn-tires-may-have-had-role-fatal-california-bus-crash-n672771
I’ll “assume” what they are trying to say is that if this specific bus had been properly inspected, this bus may have been taken out of service. But from the reports I’ve read so far, the tires do not seem to be the specific cause of this accident.
From the report: “Based on tire conditions, the vehicle was out of compliance with Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspection criteria, and it could have been placed out of service,” Earl Weener, an NTSB board member, said at a news conference.
Also in the report, “Jim Abele, chief of the California Highway Patrol’s Border Division, said Monday that there was no indication that the driver, Teodulo Elias Vides, braked before hitting the tractor-trailer.”
While the bus involved is a MCI and not a Prevost, I thought it appropriate to discuss the Prevost Aware system. While I’m a fan of adaptive cruise and collision avoidance systems in automobiles, I’m wondering how those who have experience with the Aware system find it to operate and if they feel it would have saved those onboard during this fatal accident?
I’ll also ask those who own a bus not equipped with the Aware system, if the inclusion of that feature will play a part in the purchase of your next bus? When and if it’s time to upgrade, is that feature alone enough to seek a model year that includes this feature?
On a tangent, I have no doubt that more autonomous features are coming to Prevost and other bus models in the very near future. I see that Spartan is already including its version of an adaptive cruise (collision mitigation) in some of its newer chassis and that Freightliner has autonomous vehicles on the road in testing. With Prevost being a leader in safety, do you feel that more autonomous features are on the horizon?
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12 Replies
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Hello Andy,
We have the ‘crash avoidance’ system on our Liberty. The way ours works is if the cruise is on, there is a green light that will illuminate at the speed that I set on the speedometer. If a car in front of me is going slower (way up ahead), the system recognizes it. The lights on the speedometer will start to light up in yellow from my green light at my set speed and will light up showing the speed of the car/truck in front of me.
As I get closer and if I don’t lower my speed, the transmission will kick down slowing my speed drastically.
In a different scenario, if a car cuts closely in front of me, the lights around the speedometer will light up in all red and an alarm sounds including the severe downshifting to slow me down.
In the California accident, the bus would not have hit the trailer so hard and the alarms would be going crazy to alert the driver along with the severe downshifting.
Mark
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More autonomous systems are definitely on the way. The next big effort is vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to environment communication over cellular. Connective Adaptive Cruise Control is probably the next big step, where vehicles “convoy” together and link up. If one vehicle changes speed, it communicates this to the followers and they all slow down together, reducing the “accordian” effect.
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I remember when motor vehicles had drivers who actually could drive, anticipate, take corrective action, etc.
I realize my attitude is going to piss off a lot of people who embrace technology, but the bottom line is everything from ABS to stability control to adaptive braking is in my opinion the safety net and in no way should ever be used as substitutes for driver skill. But they are. So many people aren’t paying attention it has become a huge problem and now as the systems proliferate they are relying on the systems to compensate for shitty skills.
Flame away folks. The aviation industry has seen a massive erosion of pilot skills as a result of the sophisticated systems now in planes, and when those systems break the pilot and passengers are at risk. Air bags, seat belts, better brakes, crash worthy cars have lulled the drivers into feeling invincible and they now push their cars to the limit, I can only imagine how bad it will be when these same folks are going to rely on the anti collision systems so they can do more texts.
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It’s no problem as long as there is someone to sue!
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Not flaming at all Jon as I agree with much of what you posted.
However, systems such as adaptive or autonomous have the capability of reacting to potentially dangerous situations quicker than humans. In this day and age where other drivers may be distracted, having even a bit of assistance in an emergency situation is a good thing in my book.
When caravaning, while you have full control of what’s in front of you, it’s nice to know the bus behind you is using an adaptive system.
But I’ll ask…
Do you use your coach’s cruise control or are you a true purist? I recently drove from TN to FL and I’m hoping the cruise control can be connected for the next trip! Yeah, even short legs can need a stretch now and then!
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Apples and oranges. Cruise control is not a safety device, but a means of making driving easier like power steering, power windows, power door locks etc.
The use of Cruise control may actually be a contributor to accidents because if a driver is not “driving” it will take you to the scene of the accident. Maybe the bus accident being discussed was in part caused by an inattentive driver whose cruise control was set at a high speed. There is no problem with doing that, but there is if as a driver he was not monitoring his closing speed.
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I don’t think that ADAS is the reason people don’t pay attention. I think people have just developed short attention spans due to the instant gratification afforded by all kinds of other technology. People are now entertained constantly, and driving a vehicle is (most of the time) a comparatively mundane task. There’s always a concern that driver assists will make people complacent, but you could argue the same for ABS and ESC.
I admit that I struggle with the same concerns though. New cars, with Electronic Power Assist Steering (EPAS) have all kinds of capabilities that were not possible with hydraulic power steering. They can compensate for a crown in the road, nibble from tires, etc. My concern with that is I want to know if there is a problem such as a bad alignment after hitting a pothole, an out of balance tire, or a tire losing air. All of these would be apparent as torque feedback in the steering wheel but the EPAS can compensate for this and negate the pull. The bottom line is that OEM’s are in the business of selling cars and the more comfortable they can make a car, the better it sells. My concerns about wanting torque feedback are probably shared with less than 1% of the market, so active steer compensation it is.
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I’m in agreement with Jon’s statement, as non-PC as they may be.
Last week I was at a small professional meeting of traffic engineers and transportation planners. Most were young and electronically “talented.” The young gun I was sitting next to started a discussion on everyone having to adapt the new technology to their older vehicles. I blew a gasket or two at that comment. My question to him was just exactly why he thought I would have to adapt my 26 year old bus and motorcycle to be autonomous vehicles. His answer was, “The government will require all vehicles to be autonomous.” My follow up is just how the government was going to accomplish this miracle transformation? Answer, they would “mandate” that I do it. Now the first blow up was minor, this time the top of the mountain went airborne. I told him very bluntly that would be an unfunded mandate and I had damn well had enough of the government reaching into my pocket and stealing my hard earned money. The government can go to he”double hockey sticks” on these unfunded mandates reaching into my back pocket. Federal taxes are high enough now and if Hillary gets elected taxes will go much higher to pay for her “Progressive” ideas so we all my be moving to Canada or Costa Rica. Enough is enough. I believe this feeling is what the election is all about. I’ve already voted and now I’m done with my rant.
Oh yeah, decline of driving skills became apparent when the driver’s test eliminated parallel parking. We must accomodate those without skills by eliminating any test that may identify a lesser skilled/no skilled applicant. Really?
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I approve this message ^
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The move to technologies such as collision avoidance has already started.
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Yet another intrusion into our lives by the idiots in the government. I have some of this in my current GMC Yukon and it is more of an annoyance than anything.
If you want it, by all means buy it, but don’t try to force it on those of us who don’t want or need it.
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The first paragraph in the link above says it all.
If people were attentive and actually driving their vehicles we wouldn’t have the need for any of the driving aids.
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