TROY, Mich. – Meritor WABCO Vehicle Control Systems has announced a strategic partnership with Iteris Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., to streamline and simplify delivery of critical data about vehicle safety and performance to their mutual customers. 

The agreement allows information captured by Meritor WABCO’s SmartTrac and OnGuard active safety systems to be available through Iteris’ SafetyDirect, an online application for analyzing data generated by Iteris’ lane departure warning system.

Effective immediately, Meritor WABCO fleet customers can use Iteris’ SafetyDirect application as a single point of access to monitor and synchronize driver performance data reports on braking, stability control, following distances and lane-departure warnings for individual drivers as well as the entire fleet. The comprehensive reporting includes event location, event date/time/speed, driver/vehicle and odometer reading.

“Today, North American fleet managers have to cope with greater amounts of information from disparate sources on the vehicle,” said Jon Morrison, president and general manager, Meritor WABCO. “By integrating data from our company’s SmartTrac and OnGuard active safety systems into Iteris’ SafetyDirect and lane-departure warning systems, it’s easier for fleet managers to harness the information they need to meet their safety and business goals.”

“Iteris is pleased to be working with a commercial vehicle safety leader like Meritor WABCO to provide valuable safety data through our SafetyDirect system,” said Abbas Mohaddes, president and chief executive officer, Iteris. “The ability to collect and analyze driver performance data creates a unique opportunity for fleet managers to identify risky driving behavior and provide drivers with the training that the fleet managers deem appropriate to reinforce safe driving practices”

The SafetyDirect application uses information transmitted from the vehicle by the fleet’s onboard mobile communications system via leading telematic providers such as Qualcomm Inc. and PeopleNet.

Safety systems supported by SafetyDirect include:

• SmartTrac, a suite of active safety systems that can assist the driver in maintaining control of the vehicle in response to an impending loss of directional or roll stability;

• OnGuard, a forward-looking radar-based collision safety system that can detect objects in a vehicle’s path and automatically engage the throttle, engine retarder, and service brakes when it senses an impending collision without immediate action from the driver; and

• Iteris LDW, a lane-departure warning system that uses a camera and onboard computer to track visible lane markings and detect when a vehicle drifts toward an unintended lane change.

“Capturing and communicating data generated by these systems is integral to Meritor WABCO’s ‘Pyramid of Safety,’ where individual active safety systems form a strong, cohesive structure”, emphasized Morrison.

SafetyDirect delivers a comprehensive view of the entire fleet, as well as the ability to drill down to detailed information on individual drivers and events. Fleets can choose from pre-formatted reports or export data to create custom reports. They can compare the performance of drivers within a fleet, even tracking their performance in different trucks and monitor each driver’s or group’s progress over time.

“The ability to quickly deliver accurate information about the performance of the driver and vehicle creates new opportunities to manage trucks and drivers more effectively,” said Morrison. “Meritor WABCO and Iteris are committed to working together to maximize the value of the data we capture.”

Iteris’ AutoVue lane-departure warning (LDW) system was the first of its kind to be deployed in the commercial truck and passenger car markets in the U.S. and Europe. Iteris has sold approximately 70,000 LDW systems to the heavy truck market worldwide, representing an estimated 1.2 billion miles traveled thus far. In the U.S., there are currently 74 fleets specifying Iteris’ LDW systems and another 91 fleets with approximately 154,000 trucks conducting field tests. Fleets using Iteris’ LDW systems have reported an average of 77 percent reduction in lane departure-related accidents.