WABCO Holdings Inc announced its support for the recently approved European Union mandate that sets better standards to improve road safety in Europe, including the EU's new regulation to introduce electronic stability control (ESC) systems on new heavy commercial vehicles from November 2011.
The number of fatalities on Europe's roads has decreased by 24% since 2001, according to the EU, which earlier this month mandated rules for new safety technology such as ESC, advanced emergency braking (AEB), and lane departure warning (LDW) systems to be compulsory on heavy-duty trucks and buses to further reduce accident risks. AEB systems will be mandatory in Europe from November 2013.
WABCO pioneered ESC for commercial vehicles in 2001 and has continued to innovate this safety technology ever since, selling more than 50,000 ESC systems since its introduction. ESC improves directional stability and helps protect against rollover, skidding, spinning, and jack-knifing. Currently, less than 10% of the total number of heavy-duty trucks produced in Europe are equipped with ESC.
Consistent with the EU's new rules requiring a comprehensive set of driver assistance systems (DAS) for trucks, WABCO is developing a suite of DAS technologies including AEB, LDW, and blind spot detection.