Feature sponsored by Belron Group
Everyone is talking about the driverless car these days. No wonder, as full implementation of these systems is expected to result in a 90+ percent decrease in accidents. The human and material benefits will be considerable.
At Belron Group, the world leader in windshield repair and replacement services, operating under the Speedy Glass banner in Canada, we believe in such a fundamental transformation of our habits, and already have an international team and local initiatives in place to respond to the new needs this transformation will create in our marketplace.
“Advanced Driver Assistance Systems” (ADAS) will move on from the simpler driver assistance systems that first appeared circa 2010, to the fully automated vehicle requiring no human intervention that is expected by 2035. Just imagine a car that takes people to work or to mass transit stations, then returns home and takes the kids to school, then parks itself and waits for its next assignment.
Most large makers of car and major component manufacturers are working on such systems and we can often see tests and demonstrations of these systems in the media. Things are moving forward deliberately, as new issues and potential solutions keep popping up as the systems become increasingly powerful and sophisticated.
Current ADAS implementations use at least one forward-facing camera that is integrated into the windshield, and used by the on-board systems to calculate position, clearances, speed differential, object and obstacle recognition. Needless to add, precision of readings is key to safety and efficiency.
As the world leader in the repair and replacement of windshields, the Belron International ADAS team has already identified a critical activity that is part of the Belron overall service strategy: the calibration of windshield-integrated cameras and systems after repair or replacement work has been carried out.
The calibration system used by Speedy Glass technicians makes use of a very carefully positioned target that is read by the camera to determine if any change in alignment has been introduced by the repair or replacement. If so, corrections can then made and verified by the system software. The Speedy Glass technician uses a hand-held terminal to carry out the calibration. A certificate of compliance is then produced by Speedy Glass any legal, financial or insurance purposes.
The ADAS world is evolving quickly. From 1 percent today, it is expected that more than 40 percent (25 percent in Canada) of windshield repairs or replacements will require calibration by 2020. And there is more to come. For example, cameras, radars and lasers, mounted in side and rear windows may eventually also need to be calibrated.
As with all our other activities, Speedy Glass will remain state-of-the-art, continuing to develop and use the best possible skills, materials, tools, processes and knowledge.
