LaneVue™

Improved road safety by alerting drivers to unintentional lane departures

Improved road safety by alerting drivers to unintentional lane departures

The most common causes of unintentional lane departures are poor driver concentration, and statistics show that inattention can be a factor in more than 30% of accidents in Europe and United States.
Valeo has introduced a revolutionary solution that warns drivers of unintentional lane departure, which can potentially reduce the number of accidents.

Involuntary lane departure warning: a new active safety system by Valeo

Fast, reliable lateral surveillance

A study carried out in the United States has shown that 40% of accidents occur during a lane change. Inattention and falling asleep have been one explanation for this finding. Valeo's LaneVue™ lane departure warning system provides a novel and effective solution to this problem: when the vehicles strays into the next lane without appropriate signaling, LaneVue™ alerts the driver, prompting an adjustment of the vehicle's trajectory.

The system uses a camera placed behind the windscreen, which tracks the road up to 10 meters ahead of the vehicle. These images are processed by an application which monitors the road markings of the lane in which the car is driving, and can calculate whether the vehicle will stick to its lane on the current trajectory. If the calculations result in the risk of crossing the line, the driver is immediately informed. This active safety system is particularly useful in that it sends an alert before the lane change takes place, thereby giving the driver sufficient reaction time.

Valeo's involuntary lane departure warning system, which was a world first in 2005, now appears on two models: Infiniti FX and M45. LaneVue™ has already received three prestigious awards—the Premier Automobile Suppliers' Contributions to Excellence (PACE) Award 2005 in the Product Innovations category, the Automechanika 2004 Innovation Award in the Systems and Modules category, and the Nissan Global Innovation Award 2005.

Operating principle

A camera placed high up behind the windscreen tracks the ground markings. Its CMOS technology (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) sends a high number of pixels in a wide range of shades of grey to the image-processing software. Their real-time analysis provides a digital reconstruction of the road markings. The vehicle's trajectory is determined by the data of the stability control system, with sensors for the steering wheel, g-force, and lateral acceleration. Comparing the digital road markings and the forecast trajectory allows any lane departure to be predicted.

The camera can detect both white and yellow lines, broken or unbroken. Its ability to operate at night or in fog provides it with an additional active safety advantage. Several types of driver alert are possible, according to the preferences of the automakers: buzzer, sound signal or warning light. LaneVue™ was developed in collaboration with Valeo's technological partner Iteris.

In the near future, the same camera will also be able to take over all functions linked to the detection of other vehicles, such as BeamAtic+, which offers continuous adjustment of the direction of the headlamps in oncoming traffic to prevent dazzle.

LaneVue™ advantages

Advantages for the automaker

• High resolution of the CMOS camera
• Easy integration of the system into the vehicle, with software incorporated into the camera and connection via a CAN bus
• Valeo's long experience of this kind of electronic surveillance (LaneVue™ was launched in 2005).
• Ability of the camera to incorporate other functions requiring the detection of other vehicles.

Advantages for the user

• LaneVue™ is a powerful tool for reducing the number of accidents.
• It warns the driver before the vehicle crosses a lane marking.
• Its surveillance system works at night and in fog.
• The driver can quickly correct the trajectory in response to an intuitive alert system.

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