Continental Automotive Systems has developed an optical sensor which can reduce the severity or even completely avoid accidents at lower speed.
The closing velocity sensor system assists the driver in braking if there is a risk of a rear-end collision;
This pre-crash sytem scans the space in front of the vehicle up to 10 meters ahead in 3 areas:
- to the right
- to the left
- straight ahead
The optical sensor detects an object in front of the vehicle and the send-and-receive unit near the inside mirror then uses the signal to calculate how far away the vehicle in front is along with closing speed.
The system is expected to be launched in a 2008 series production car.