Bendix Intellipark™ Electronic Parking Brake: Enabling Safer Trucks Today And Tomorrow
ELYRIA, OH… Addressing a problem of today while paving another stretch on the road to tomorrow, Bendix® Intellipark™ electronic parking brake control is now moving into fleet trials with an expected launch in 2019.
Intellipark helps prevent rollaway and runaway crashes by automatically setting the brakes if the driver exits the vehicle while it is not parked. Beyond rollaway mitigation, the system uses information available on the vehicle network to allow the park brake to be released only when an authorized driver is in full control of the vehicle. Intellipark also delivers features such as Trailer Auto-Park Release, which can automatically release trailer brakes when the vehicle is moving. The Park-at-Speed feature helps the driver to maintain control if the parking brakes are applied while driving. Plus, the system delivers a more durable and ergonomic interface, which is pleasing to drivers.
Since Intellipark is electronic, it is also positioned for integration with Bendix® Wingman® Fusion™, enabling the use of the parking brakes to further enhance driver assistance functions. In addition, it delivers the parking functions necessary for future autonomous vehicles.
Bendix engineered Intellipark for use with any air-braked vehicle, including tractor-trailers, single-unit trucks, motorcoaches, and school buses. It’s designed to help drivers mitigate a variety of unsafe situations, as well as deliver a quick ROI to the fleet through incident prevention and a longer life with minimal maintenance.
“Preventing rollaways was our foremost goal with Intellipark™, because they can be both damaging and deadly,” said Fred Andersky, Bendix director of customer solutions – Controls. “Automatic parking brake technology delivers safety, value, and a quick return on investment if it prevents even a single occurrence. It also ties into the evolution of active safety systems and advancing automated and autonomous technologies.”
Intellipark features an improved, driver-friendly interface that eases the effort of setting the parking brake, replacing the red and yellow push/pull knobs with switches that can be flipped on and off with even a single finger. The switches display the familiar red and yellow symbols, and they activate the parking brake through less physical effort on the driver’s part – without delivering that popping “sting” of air switches when they’re pulled. This enhanced ergonomic design may also help decrease driver fatigue and prevent repetitive motion injuries. And the easy-to-read interface, which includes LED lights, helps the driver understand the status of the parking brakes on both the tractor and the trailer – prior to leaving the vehicle or heading out on the road.
If the driver misses the LED indication on the user interface or the Trailer Air Warning telltale on the vehicle instrument cluster and begins to drive away with the trailer park brake engaged, Intellipark’s Trailer Auto-Park Release will disengage the trailer park brake automatically. This helps reduce the chance for trailer tire flat-spotting, trailer tire fires, and wheel-end damage.
“Fleets can use data provided by Intellipark to help gain insight when the system activates – to set the parking brake automatically, or to disengage the trailer brakes automatically. For fleets equipped with the user-friendly web portal SafetyDirect® by Bendix CVS, that data is transmitted through their telematics provider automatically to fleet offices,” Andersky said. “This enables fleet managers to use the information to help with driver training as part of an overall safety program.”
Technologies like Intellipark and Wingman® Fusion™ are designed not to replace drivers, or to enable or encourage aggressive driving, or system dependency. These are driver assistance, not driver replacement technologies. Responsibility for safe operation, including parking of any commercial vehicle, remains with the driver at all times.
Through an ever-growing portfolio of vehicle technologies, Bendix delivers on areas crucial to the success of fleets and owner-operators, including safety, reliability, lower total cost of operation, and vehicle performance and efficiency. Bendix backs its systems and components with unparalleled post-sales support, continuously striving to strengthen return on investment in equipment that improves North American vehicle and highway safety for all who share the road.
For more information about Bendix safety systems and technologies, call 1-800-AIR-BRAKE (1-800-247-2725) or visit www.bendix.com or safertrucks.com/solutions. Visit the Bendix multimedia center at knowledge-dock.com for further insight on advanced safety technology development, driver assistance systems, and commercial vehicle safety regulations.