Mitchell Details Complexity of ADAS
Mitchell International released its 2019 Fourth Quarter Industry Trends Report which highlights how Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have made the auto glass replacement business more complex.
According to Jack Rozint, Mitchell International’s sales and service vice president, auto glass installers need the best available tools to help streamline business operations and auto glass replacement. Many businesses, he said, continue to use Point of Sale (POS) management systems to improve efficiency, enhance dispatch services, bill more accurately and improve customer communications.
“For those vehicles that have front lane departure systems where the camera points through the front glass, the replacement of a windshield takes on completely new levels of complexity,” said Rozint. “It is not uncommon for a specific make and model to have 20 or more possible different windshield SKUs that reflect a growing number of available parts.”
Once the correct part has been identified, the technician needs to ensure that all OEM recommended procedures are followed.
“With so many manufacturers producing ADAS equipped vehicles, and the installation procedure varying widely, it quickly becomes very difficult to access and follow the correct procedures on every vehicle, every day. The correct procedure can vary even within the same OEM’s product line,” said Rozit.
Rozit mentioned that those working on an ADAS-equipped vehicle need to know which process the vehicle will need to undergo.
“If there is a recalibration required, is it a static calibration, one that requires fixed targets, or is it a dynamic calibration that requires a drive cycle with a specialized scan tool. Once I know what recalibrations are required, if any, is this something I can provide as a service, or will I have to outsource the work to a third party? These questions require both resolution and certainty,” Rozit said.
Europe Leads U.S. in ADAS Safety Testing
Though ADAS is increasingly more common in vehicles today, driver interaction and attention is still needed. The availability of ADAS, though, provides plenty of opportunity for users to misunderstand or misuse the technology. The Insurance Journal, for example, reports it is “putting pressure on regulators everywhere to overhaul safety testing and consumer rating systems that have not kept up with the pace of deployment of new semi-automated driving technology.”
The National Transportation Safety Board called out U.S. regulators last month for not keeping up with their European counterparts for ensuring consumer and road safety.
“We’re raising the bar for safety technologies in our new vehicles,” said acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief James Owens, indicating that his agency would make changes this year to a testing pro-gram that assigns safety grades to new and future vehicles.
Back in December 2015, NHTSA issued proposed rule-making for testing procedures that were similar to testing done by European regulators, but no rules have been put forward since then. Owens’ comments follow NTSB criticism of NHTSA’s approach to regulating semi-automated driving technology.
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