Driving Close To Other Vehicles

Micaracleofmagick wrote

Many of the collision avoidance systems installed in the newer trucks alert when driving to close to another vehicle and some well even brake automatically if you get too close. Most do not notify the company though. The one system that Werner has in some off their trucks that does alert the company gives many false alerts as well and it doesn't take video of it, just send them a message.

My personal dash cam does alert if you follow too closely, but it doesn't save the video automatically when it does. So obviously the technology is there, but I haven't heard of it being implemented in quite that way yet.

The system Swift has works in a similar fashion. I do know of several drivers who were caught following too close, but the camera was triggered by some other event (hard braking, etc.) and not specifically the "following too close" situation.

Brett's suggestion:

It would seem simple enough with the collision avoidance systems that if the system detects you're too close to something in front of you and you're doing more than maybe 40 mph that windshield camera should kick on and record how close you are to the driver in front of you.

The shuttle trucks I drove for Swift last year have a "distance blocker", whatever it's really called, that prevents you from getting close to the vehicle ahead of you.

On the interstate , when you get to something like 230 feet behind the vehicle in front, the accelerator retards till your speed matches the vehicle in front. You're not going to tailgate!

So to pass a truck that is governed 1mph less than you takes twice as long - several minutes - in the left lane as you crawl by, and as you block others.

The system Swift has works in a similar fashion

On the interstate , when you get to something like 230 feet behind the vehicle in front, the accelerator retards till your speed matches the vehicle in front. You're not going to tailgate!

That's pretty interesting. To be honest it always scares me to have a vehicle make decisions for you though. Scares everyone I guess.

So to pass a truck that is governed 1mph less than you takes twice as long

Yeah, with so many of the trucks on the road nowadays running within 5 mph of each other that's a constant struggle right there. You're regularly passing or being passed at a snail's pace.

The key to making all of this collision avoidance stuff work well is to put RFID chips (or something similar, maybe wifi) in all vehicles so that all vehicles can detect each other. A computer can only make decisions based upon the quality of the input it's given. It would be great if all vehicles knew the speed and location of all other vehicles around them in real time so even if someone slammed on their brakes 10 vehicles ahead of you all of the vehicles behind would react properly. But of course good luck setting a standard that various companies will agree to.

The system Swift has works in a similar fashion

On the interstate , when you get to something like 230 feet behind the vehicle in front, the accelerator retards till your speed matches the vehicle in front. You're not going to tailgate!

That's pretty interesting. To be honest it always scares me to have a vehicle make decisions for you though. Scares everyone I guess.

So to pass a truck that is governed 1mph less than you takes twice as long

Yeah, with so many of the trucks on the road nowadays running within 5 mph of each other that's a constant struggle right there. You're regularly passing or being passed at a snail's pace.

The key to making all of this collision avoidance stuff work well is to put RFID chips (or something similar, maybe wifi) in all vehicles so that all vehicles can detect each other. A computer can only make decisions based upon the quality of the input it's given. It would be great if all vehicles knew the speed and location of all other vehicles around them in real time so even if someone slammed on their brakes 10 vehicles ahead of you all of the vehicles behind would react properly. But of course good luck setting a standard that various companies will agree to.

Actually, though it would be a nightmare to hammer out standards, some sort of communal warning system would be fairly easy to implement in vehicles, and regulate. It would fall into the category of safety standards, and those are already regulated. Set aside a certain frequency range for use by automotive data channels like they do for air traffic control.

This would simply be for a warning system though. I agree that a system that actually takes actions overriding the driver would be far more difficult to engineer and implement universally.

We have "on guard"... which will brake if too close. If you put your foot on thw accelerator it beeps.but will allow you to get closer. One of my trainers was so aggressive I had to try to sleep with beep beep beep going all day. Smh.

I know that doesn't get sent back to prime.. and when on guard kicks in for.me..it is usually an up coming overpass.... certain materials seem to trigger it. That doesn't get sent in either..it just slows me a second. I hate it in snow and rain when someone jumps in front cause it prevents me from controlling the truck.

What I do love about it is that it shows me the distance in feet and tells me the speed of the driver in front of me so I can adjust

The shuttle trucks I drove for Swift last year have a "distance blocker", whatever it's really called, that prevents you from getting close to the vehicle ahead of you.

On the interstate , when you get to something like 230 feet behind the vehicle in front, the accelerator retards till your speed matches the vehicle in front. You're not going to tailgate!

So to pass a truck that is governed 1mph less than you takes twice as long - several minutes - in the left lane as you crawl by, and as you block others.

When I last drove for Swift (first of this year) OTR , the front distance limiter (I'll call it) only kicked in when cruise control was on. Might call it "adaptive cruise control" to follow the vehicle ahead by about 3 seconds (max range of the sensor seemed to be around 4 seconds, so that's probably why it kept it at 3 -- maximum reliable range of the sensor). But it continually had false readings, disengaging the cruise control and even applying brakes. For instance, when the vehicle ahead was leaving the freeway and fully on an off ramp, slowing down, brake lights on (sensor seemed to recognize brake lights). Or when passing under a bridge, or something on the side of the road. So, it was a nuisance. And a potential danger if a truck behind was tailgating and the system applied the brakes.

Now I'm driving cryogenic gasses, and all of the companies doing it kick up the safety a notch or two (or three or four). At least one company (Matheson Tri-Gas) has video cameras on the road ahead and the driver, full time (not just critical events). Another company, Linde, says the cameras are only for critical events, but I've heard reports of drivers saying they've seen video monitors displaying it full-time. Don't know what to believe. Full-time cameras seem effective to promote safe driving, but I bet a lot of drivers won't drive for those companies because of it.

Best option, I think, is to keep the camera off the driver, at least until there is a critical event or tailgating sensor triggers.

Don recollects:

When I last drove for Swift (first of this year) OTR , the front distance limiter (I'll call it) only kicked in when cruise control was on. Might call it "adaptive cruise control" to follow the vehicle ahead by about 3 seconds (max range of the sensor seemed to be around 4 seconds, so that's probably why it kept it at 3 -- maximum reliable range of the sensor).

That is correct for some trucks. The got a Cascadia sleeper unit now, and that's it. You'll "adapt" that distance, and you can move up with the accelerator.

But the day cabs I drove for shuttles would not let you creep up behind anyone. You stayed at that distance unless you changed lanes.