DRIVING DOWN THE SAFETY HIGHWAY

DRIVING DOWN THE SAFETY HIGHW AY

High levels of electronic safety systems are now becoming the normality in all new truck launches as we continue driving down the safety highway. Tim Giles drives this year’s model to check out the latest technology in the new Isuzu N Series range.

When the latest iteration of the Isuzu N Series was announced last year, the headline feature was not a new cabin shape, or a new engine, or transmission. The headline was the fact that the top selling model, in the top selling brand in Australia was getting the latest state-of-the-art safety technology as standard.

As market leader for the last 33 years, the Isuzu Trucks organisation in Australia has developed a conservative approach to truck development. Invariably, it is rarely the first to introduce any major innovations, but when it does, it gives those developments the stamp of approval and, on the evidence of the last three decades, gets it right.

The major features of the design of the light duty N Series range need little updating. The exhaust emission rules will not change for at least three years, and probably longer. Therefore there is no need to update the engines in these trucks. Similarly, the cabins in N Series are modern enough to suit Australian needs for some time to come.

Safety systems are one aspect of truck design which has changed at quite a sharp rate in recent years, after they started to appear in the heavy duty European prime movers, some time ago. Europe will always be ahead of Australia in these matters, but the North American truck makers picked up on the trend relatively quickly, after

HIGHW AY

the first systems began to arrive.

Since then, the safety systems have moved in throughout the truck market. Any truck maker introducing a new model without a suite of safety gadgets does not make much impression on truck sales. This is not just a fashion, it’s about taking on the responsibility to increase safety out on the roads and reduce fatalities around trucks.

There is also a duty of care on the part of employers and now the chain of responsibility, applying to transport operators, which expects them to use safety technology, if it is available.

Well, now it’s available on the ubiquitous N Series from Isuzu. The technology includes something we haven’t seen on any truck here before, a stereo camera system to see what is ahead of the truck and identify and quantify any problems to alert the driver and stop the truck if needed.

DRIVING WITH THE ADAS SYSTEM The latest technology comes under the heading of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and this term covers a multitude of different individual components making up the whole, which renders the truck safer to drive.

Anyone who has had a go with a new truck in recent years will be aware of the technology available here, but the Hitachi 3D stereo camera, fitted on the new N series, is something a little different.

Most ADAS will use a radar mounted low down at the front of the truck to detect objects in front of a truck, and determine their speed and direction. This is coupled with a video camera mounted high on the windscreen. Machine learning then tries to identify the object, whether it’s a human, a car, a tree or a road sign and act accordingly. The system uses the two streams of data from radar and camera to make a judgement on the shape ahead.

By going to a stereo camera, Isuzu are able to get a better idea of the shape of the object, and its speed and distance using the binocular vision to get a 3D image of any object.

Both styles of ADAS are clearly effective.

This particular stereo camera is in use on cars already on sale in Australia and the radar camera option has been with us for some years. According to Isuzu, when ADAS is introduced in the heavier model ranges from the brand, it will probably use the camera plus radar option.

Out on the road, these modern systems need little driver input, if any. The whole idea is that they only react and kick in when the risk arises and will act autonomously, if the driver does not react to any warnings.

This does mean that we are unable to test the ADAS to its fullest extent, i.e. get it to the point where it puts all of the brakes on at 100 per cent to avoid hitting another vehicle or a pedestrian. This is not a good idea on the busy roads of Melbourne.

However, the other aspects of the ADAS come into play on a regular basis as the truck weaves through busy traffic in the CBD and surrounds. Although the heart of the system is the Advanced Emergency Braking (AEB) which does attempt to stop the truck before a collision, another function is the Forward Collision Warning (FCW) which sets off alerts to tell the driver to brake as they approach a situation where the ADAS recognises any danger.

The various levels of warning have alerts which reflect their severity. The feeling when the AEB sets off is very loud, bright and everything in the cab will fly forward if not secure, this really gets the adrenalin pumping, the truck has just averted a collision.

The FCW is also loud and involves a bright light on the dashboard. The driver is very aware there is something wrong and needs to brake immediately. The urgency of the situation is signalled very clearly.

More subtle, and less urgent, is the Distance Warning System (DWS). This uses the camera to scan the road ahead and if the obstacle in front comes within a certain distance, the warning will sound, just to remind the driver to back off, or touch the brakes. The predetermined distance can be adjusted by the driver on the dashboard controls, shorter distances in the city and longer ones for the open highway.

With an even more subtle alarm the Traffic Movement Warning (TMW) uses the ADAS to notify the driver with a small beep, that the vehicle in front has set off, in a ‘sitting at the traffic lights’ type situation. This TMW doesn’t seem to be that useful on a truck, unless you have drivers who are easily distracted and don’t watch the traffic in front of them. It is all part of the features available with the 3D camera.

“Over 50 per cent of Australian operators in road transport record that overall road safety and driver safety are key issues, with this figure increasing to 70 per cent for larger fleets,” says Simon Humphries, Isuzu Australia Limited Chief Engineer, Product Strategy. “The desire for improved safety technology is a real and current concern for our customers, and we are responding to this with product that puts driver and road safety first.

“Isuzu’s new active ADAS in N Series 4x2 trucks has been optimised with a 3D Stereo camera, which has superior capabilities for detecting low-height objects and smaller road users such as children and other pedestrians.

“This is particularly beneficial for businesses working in what we know to be the highest-risk of collision environments, urban and metro areas, in applications such as trades, services, freight and lastmile delivery.” IN THE CABIN Sitting in the truck is a very familiar experience there is little superficial change to be seen as the driver jumps into the seat and turns the key in the ignition. The dash does look a little different, there is more to see on the small screen in the middle of the dashboard, but not that much.

In its innate conservatism, Isuzu has not moved to the latest high fidelity screen on the dash. There is just a small screen with some images on it and a couple of small buttons at the bottom to make the limited adjustment available.

On the test drive, the only setting which PowerTorque adjusted was the one controlling the distance to a vehicle ahead. In this urban test drive, it was decided to set this a little further out from the truck than would normally be necessary, in order to get some real life experience of the ADAS being set off in a real situation.

As a result of this setting, the DWS did beep on a regular basis and we must have come close to setting off the FCW a couple of times. This was a useful exercise to see just how sensitive the ADAS is and to get used to the way it works. Once the driver

gets sick of the beeping, it is easy enough to adjust the ADAS so that it only activates when it really needs to alert the driver to something serious.

Another of the new systems on the N Series, the Auto Lighting System (ALS) did not get an opportunity to activate during the test drive. The skies above Melbourne remained quite bright and the drive didn’t take the trucks through a tunnel, so the lights were unable to show they will turn on automatically in low light situations.

DEVELOPING TRUCKS This new N Series range also introduced some innovations in the way the truck is put together and the way it is presented to the market. The latest technological development have streamlined the process of bringing the new trucks to the market.

During the pandemic the normal exchanges between the engineers in Australia speccing up the new model and the original model design team in Tokyo, were limited with no face-toface interaction.

Instead, Isuzu developed a portal between Japan and Australia, where both teams could work on and share the same 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) models and work on them together. This smoothed out the process of taking a Japanese original and adapting it to our rules and conditions.

This development has also had the knock-on effect of making it possible for Isuzu in Australia to provide body builders here, with a CAD model of the new truck in advance, to speed up the body design and adaptation process. In the past, body builders have had to wait until the trucks arrived in their workshops to finalise a body design and fitting procedure.

The new models also feature another pandemic innovation, the QR code. There are now QR codes posted inside the door on each new Isuzu. Scanning these codes takes you to all of the information needed on each particular vehicle, including VIN data, ID codes, warranty info, GVM, GCM and much more.

SELLING TRUCKS If there is one thing the Isuzu operation in Australia knows how to do, it is selling trucks, consistently over time. The new N Series is going to help the organisation carry on in a similar vein. The truck has been designed to tick all of the boxes for a truck buyer in the 2020s and has introduced enough new technology to keep it in the leading pack.

The truck maker’s situation will be further strengthened by a few aspects of this N series truck launch. the first being the introduction of a factory warranty for six years or 250,000km, plus six years roadside assistance for all of the 4x2 models in the range.

The other aspect is the continuing extension of the pre-built ready to work body offering, which comes along with these new models. The different options, including the Tipper, Traypack, Tradepack, Servicepack and Vanpack are being extended and developed all of the time and are making up a larger and larger proportion of total sales for the brand.

There has been some concern about how well the Isuzu brand can keep ahead of its direct competitors. The company is a stand along operation, albeit a large one with global reach, but its major competitors are all part of much bigger global corporations with access to massive research and design funding.

Isuzu’s answer to this issue has taken the form of a number of alliances with complementary manufacturers, to achieve the kind of R&D scale needed in the modern world. The relationship with Cummins is likely to lead to future power plants in the trucks and the purchase of UD Trucks from the Volvo Group, should see some developments, especially in the heavy duty market segment. There is also an engine deal with Hino.

Overall, on the evidence of the new N Series and its technology, the market will be seeing plenty of Isuzus on the road for a considerable time to come. These new N Series models will take the Isuzu brand well into the future, before the transition across to zero emissions ups the stakes and uncertainty. Watch this space.