Bosch will introduce a new predictive emergency braking system in 2010, which could help significantly improve road safety throughout the Middle East.

The new system has the potential to avert three out of four injury-causing rear-end collisions.

Middle Eastern countries are intensifying their road safety programs in response to the World Health Organisation’s warning that road-related crashes will become the number one cause of death by 2020 unless positive actions are taken. They are particularly focusing on the four hazard control measures of Elimination, Engineering, Education and Enforcement. Bosch will support the Engineering dimension by introducing a predictive emergency braking system that will provide drivers with support on three levels.

“More intelligence is being built into braking systems to enable them to assess traffic conditions and provide additional braking support as needed. Rather than being sold off as separate equipment, such systems are already being built into entire automobile lines. By next year we will be installing predictive systems into Audi vehicles, which are very popular in the Middle East,” said Volker Bischoff, GM, Robert Bosch ME.

The upcoming Bosch system detects potential obstacles and initially provides an audible or visual warning, followed by a brief application of the brakes. If the driver reacts and steps on the brakes, the system uses the emergency braking assistant to increase braking pressure and avoid collision. However, if there is no driver response but impact is imminent, then the system brakes at maximum force.

Bosch engineers have been able to reduce the weight and size of the new braking control system by up to 30 per cent as compared to the previous version. A further reduction in cost supports the efforts of the automotive industry and authorities to make active safety systems standard equipment worldwide. The new Bosch system will go into series production in 2010 at Audi AG.-TradeArabia News Service