Bendix announced Wednesday that its flagship collision mitigation system, Bendix Fusion, is available for order on select Kenworth trucks.
"We've been working with the Kenworth team for decades to provide North America's fleets and drivers with safer trucks, and it never stops being a point of pride to see Bendix technologies on their top vehicles," says Nicole Oreskovic, Bendix's vice president of sales and marketing. "From the earliest days of our full-stability systems in 2005 to the latest continuing steps in highly automated driving, Kenworth has always been a fantastic and valuable partner on our journey toward safer roads for everyone."
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Bendix Fusion has been available on Kenworth models since 2016 and has been standard on some Kenworth trucks, including the T680, since 2018. Bendix Fusion is built on the foundation of the Bendix ESP Electronic Stability Program full-stability system. It gathers input through radar, video and brakes, combining and checking data from sensors that work together. Fusion then delivers collision mitigation on moving and stationary vehicles and prioritizes alerts to help reduce driver distraction.
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"Drivers are, and have always been, the inspiration for every Kenworth truck built — and we are happy to partner with Bendix to provide customers purchasing new T680s with a solution that, coupled with safe driving behavior, addresses ease of operation, increased convenience and improved driver comfort," says Kyle Kimball, Kenworth's director of marketing.
Bendix's Fusion system has several new features, including a new radar. The FLR-25 sensor allows for a new feature, ACB Stop and Auto-Go with pedestrian cancel and service brake hold. The new radar enables updates to Fusion's autonomous emergency braking and stationary vehicle braking with dashboard-integrated messaging.
Fusion also provides multi-lane autonomous emergency braking, highway departure warning and braking, active cruise with braking, following distance alerts, lane departure warning and alerts when speeding.
"The way ACB Stop and Auto-Go works is that if a detected forward vehicle slows to a stop, the system may automatically dethrottle the engine, activate the engine retarder, and apply the service brakes to bring your truck to a full stop," says TJ Thomas, director of marketing and customer solutions, controls. "If the forward vehicle resumes moving within a few seconds — and if the system does not detect a pedestrian or object between your truck and that vehicle — your vehicle may accelerate back up to the previously set cruise control speed while maintaining the distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you."
Fusion with ACB Stop and Auto-Go is available on select Kenworth T680 powertrains with automated transmission.
The latest version of Fusion includes a new function, service brake hold. The system intervenes with service brakes and the truck comes to a full stop. The service brakes will hold the vehicle at a stop until the driver takes action.
"Drivers are more satisfied with radar-and-camera systems than with radar-only technologies — largely due to fewer false alerts and interventions — and fleets equipping their tractors with Bendix collision mitigation technologies have reported significant reductions in rear-end collisions as well as decreased severity of those that did occur," Thomas says.
Fusion is compatible with Bendix BlindSpotter Side Object Detection System and SafetyDirect, which provides fleet operators with insights into common driving behaviors and trends.
"No one can control everything that happens on the highway, and even a great driver can have a bad day," Thomas says. "We are focused on developing technologies that assist drivers, not replace them. At the end of the day, our team — and our colleagues at Kenworth — want nothing more than to see everyone on the road safely home."
