ADAS refers to a set of features consisting of both physical hardware as well as software which are designed to streamline and enhance the safety of driving a vehicle.
What does ADAS stand for?
ADAS stands for advanced driver assistance systems, in its full form. These systems are featured in almost every new vehicle in the UK and all of Europe, and it is becoming increasingly uncommon to find a vehicle without at least one such feature.
Some of the most common ADAS features include:
Parking Assist: which takes control of the vehicle’s steering to park in a tight spot.
Adaptive Cruise Control: which controls acceleration and braking to match road and traffic conditions.
What does ADAS do?
ADAS enhances the safety of driving, as well as making it easier and more pleasant. Each feature is designed to take the pressure away from the driver, and streamline every journey.
The primary goal of ADAS is to reduce and prevent injuries and even death by using technology to reduce the number of collisions, and ease the severity of unavoidable ones. This is done in a number of ways:
Hazard detection consists of cameras and radar detecting nearby vehicles, pedestrians, or general hazards which may cause danger to the driver. Some systems will automatically take control to avoid these hazards or mitigate damage, whereas others will buzz or beep to warn the driver about them.
Road safety warnings alert the driver to general points of interest like traffic lights, or even when they are driving the wrong way. These kinds of systems are the most simple out of all ADAS, but they can be very beneficial nonetheless.
Automatic interventions can massively increase driver safety by immediately steering a vehicle away from danger, or gradually decreasing vehicle speed to brace for impact. ADAS may also intervene automatically if it detects a vehicle slowly leaving the correct lane unintentionally.
Active vs passive ADAS technology
Some features of ADAS are active whilst others are passive. Active features work proactively to improve safety and reduce the risk of incidents. This could be through automatic steering or braking, or by adjusting speed to match context (speed of surrounding cars).
Active ADAS technology is highly useful because technology and sensors have much faster response time than we do as people, so harnessing this to increase safety is vital. Even the most capable and experienced drivers are not able to do some of the things ADAS is able to do.
Passive ADAS features work by alerting or notifying the driver with varying degrees of intensity based on the severity of the issue at hand. Passive features will not take control of the vehicle however, they are solely there to aid the driver, who remains in full control of the vehicle. The features could be auditory and visual alerts (beeps and alarms to warn the driver of nearby obstacles), or they could be haptic feedback features such as steering wheel vibration for more urgent alerts.
Currently, passive ADAS features are more common in vehicles. This is because they are more simple to create and implement, as well as being cheaper. Active ADAS can be highly advanced technology, often meaning that vehicles with multiple active features are much more expensive.
Is ADAS the future of driving?
ADAS is widely believed to be the future of driving and transportation. Passive features have been slowly implemented into vehicles over the course of about a decade, and the same is slowly beginning to happen with active features.
Many vehicles, such as Tesla cars, are equipped with state-of-the-art ADAS features so impressive that they can even drive themselves in many scenarios! It’s like something out of a film, right? More about Tesla’s active safety features here.