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Thursday, March 28, 2024

ADAS May be Mandated by Transport Canada

By: Jag Dhatt

With personal vehicles being loaded with automatic safety features, it was only a matter of time when the same technologies would be made available in commercial trucks. And now, Transport Canada is considering mandating Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), but only after getting feedback and opinions from those in the trucking industry.

As computers grow smaller and cheaper, while also becoming more powerful, manufacturers have begun adding them to vehicles to improve performance, efficiency and safety.

Transport Canada is looking at whether some of these features should be required on some new vehicles in Canada, in particular school buses and commercial trucks, while avoiding requirements that could keep the technology from advancing. If required, these features would become standard equipment on new vehicles. We may also set performance requirements for some technologies when performance varies between manufacturers, or when there’s a safety risk.

                                                                                             Source: Transport Canada

According to the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), by having the right mix of Driver Assistance Systems and proper training for drivers, it will improve the safety performance of commercial vehicles. And thus, the CTA wants all vested partners to be part of this discussion and data collection and analysis.

“Once all of these groups are at the table, we can collectively examine crash data and assess technologies that are strongly being considered for mandate in the United States, which is where the bulk of heavy truck and trailer manufacturing takes place, and determine the suitability of these technologies for Canada’s over-the-road and vocational sectors,” says the CTA’s Geoff Wood.

The CTA is also encouraging governments to create incentives for fleets to purchase and install ADAS if they agree to share their operating data with regulators and stakeholders.