F2008-02-057
Driving Assistance for the Mass-Market: Quo Vadis?
Driving Assistance systems are recognised as having the potential to seriously reduce the number of accidents and fatalities worldwide. However the diffusion of these systems has been almost limited to luxury vehicles so far. How will we get the breakthrough and ensure the diffusion of these systems into the mass-market needed to reach the ambitious targets of accident reduction? Do we need only to reduce the costs of current systems? Do we need to develop new systems adapted to the volume segments? Or do we need to better understand the end-users and to ensure that driving assistance systems answer correctly real needs? Can the HMI of the driving assistance systems impact their diffusion? Can we speak from a change of paradigm from technology push in the luxury segment in the late 90´s to an on-coming new market pull in this new century? The paper will give up-to-date information using current marketing investigations with independent organizations made at Valeo on driving assistance systems (focus groups, customer clinics & internet survey). And we will look at the impact on current and future driving assistance systems design and marketing. The current systems (ACC, LDWS, Blind Spot Detection, adaptive lighting, Parking systems) will be analysed and directions for future developments will be given.