Fire rescue vehicles are some of the hardest and riskiest vehicles to drive in traffic. Imagine driving with the emergency lights on and sirens blaring!
They are not only large and cumbersome but forced to respond in high-traffic areas where the behavior of drivers is unpredictable. We hear all too often in the news about the unfortunate accidents involving fire apparatus. These accidents happen during emergency calls as well as during normal nonemergency driving. Some of these accidents are very serious, sometimes with fatalities involving the emergency response vehicle drivers and crew members as well as the public. To me, there is an obvious need to try and reduce these unfortunate accidents.
With the current trend toward autonomous and/or connected vehicles, how can we incorporate this technology to make fire rescue vehicles responding to emergency scenes safer? Adapting this technology to emergency response vehicles (ERVs) will make the ERV and its crew members safer, improve public safety, and also significantly reduce costs and downtime associated with collisions-not to mention reduce average departmental response times. The savings alone could pay for system enhancements.
Although manufacturers have been doing an outstanding job of testing their software and improving the quality of their vehicles, gaps will exist in vehicles that are connected. In addition, there is a world full of “bad guys” who will try to exploit these vulnerabilities.
Technology Terms
Let’s review some basic areas of these new technologies, excluding any unique equipment used by fire-rescue apparatus. The definitions below are basic and broad for the main purpose of providing some insight into this very large and complex area of ever-changing motor vehicle technology.
In-Vehicle Infotainment. Also referred to as IVI, these are systems that deliver entertainment and information such as audio content and navigation systems for driving that are available from several automobile manufacturers. These systems sometimes incorporate Bluetooth technology and/or smartphones for driver control through voice controls, manual controls, or touchscreen. These systems access the Internet for weather, traffic conditions, breaking news, and other public broadcast information. They also can provide movies, games, social networking, text messaging, and phone calls.
V2V Communication. This system essentially allows vehicles to communicate with those in close proximity to each other for the purpose of knowing exactly where they are on the roadway in distance from each other to provide drivers with warnings to avoid possible accidents. It is considered the next safety improvement for automobiles in the near future for the United States. It could be integrated into automated braking and steering systems as a collision avoidance system to reduce accidents on U.S. roadways.
ADAS. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems are primarily designed as collision avoidance systems for automobiles that will take over control or assist the driver to prevent an accident. Considered one the fastest-growing segments in the automotive industry, ADAS receives inputs from various data sources and vehicle systems including radar, LiDAR (similar to radar but using laser light), automotive imaging systems, in-car networking, V2V, and phones or WiFi data networks.
Autonomous. As the name implies, cars and trucks with this technology can drive themselves without human assistance or input. There is an argument that these vehicles are technically automated and not autonomous because someone (human) is deciding or requ