Plymouth-based global automotive producer Mobis today announced the conceptual research of a Departed Driver Rescue and Exit Maneuver (DDREM) technology designed to guide a vehicle to safety during departed driver scenarios and prevent more than 90 percent of departed-driver crashes.
The level four autonomous technology runs in the background of a vehicle like airbags and seatbelts, and activates during situations including falling asleep, experiencing a heart attack, or other health conditions that prevent a driver from operating the vehicle. Company officials estimate the DDREM technology could save more than 6,000 lives of the nearly 7,000 fatalities caused by these situations each year.
“Autonomous technology as a service is being aggressively pursued by many automotive and technology companies, but it may be many years before these complicated solutions are available to the market,” says David Agnew, director of advanced engineering for Mobis North America.
While others have their sights set on full-service autonomous vehicles, Mobis wants to use recent technological advancements to solve a more current issue.
“Mobis’ approach is to pull the incredible safety potential of autonomous tech to the forefront of the market and to drastically reduce the ongoing problem of departed-driver crashes,” adds Agnew.
Mobis is currently working with North American government agencies to accelerate DDREM technology and is also seeking arrangements to partner with a global automaker before the technology goes into production.
