Peterbilt adds Bendix Wingman Fusion as an option on highway tractor and vocational truck models

Bendix’s flagship driver assistance system, Bendix Wingman Fusion, can now be ordered as a factory-installed option on Peterbilt Motors Company Models 579 and 567 highway tractors and vocational trucks.

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems made Wingman Fusion available in 2015. The system integrates and advances a proven, road-tested suite of Bendix safety technologies – radar, camera, the vehicle’s brake system – into a comprehensive driver assistance system.

“Peterbilt has a long history of building the safest, highest-quality vehicles available for fleets and owner-operators, and Bendix is proud to support their commitment with the most leading-edge technologies on the road,” said Scott Burkhart, Bendix vice president – sales, marketing, and business development. “With systems like Wingman Fusion helping the dedicated men and women behind the wheel across North America, our highways become safer for everyone.”

Unlike radar-only systems, Wingman Fusion combines and cross-checks information from multiple sources to deliver enhanced rear-end collision mitigation, alerts when speeding, and braking on stationary vehicles. Bendix Wingman Fusion also helps drivers avoid additional crash situations, including rollovers, loss-of-control and sideswipe crashes while prioritizing alerts to help reduce driver distraction.

Built on the Bendix ESP Electronic Stability Program full-stability system, Bendix Wingman Fusion gathers input through radar, video, and the vehicle’s brakes. Then, using deep, multisystem integration, Wingman Fusion creates a highly detailed and accurate data picture. With video, radar, and other sensors working together, and not just in parallel, the system realizes events sooner – alerting the driver and decreasing the vehicle’s speed up to twice as much – to help the driver mitigate potential collisions or lessen their severity. This potent combination results in near zero false alerts or interventions – a problem often encountered with other systems on the market today.

Additionally, Peterbilt dealers can order the Fusion system with the stand-alone Bendix BlindSpotter side object detection system with a single option code. The BlindSpotter technology – not integrated into the Fusion system – provides drivers visual and audible alerts when vehicles are traveling in the truck’s right-side blind spot.

 Burkhart noted that Fusion’s capabilities are the result of the software and sensors “talking” together – constantly cross-checking information, multiple times per second – and providing a more robust system that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

“Fusion sets new benchmarks for accurate decision making,” said Scott Newhouse, Peterbilt chief engineer. “The optimized communication between safety systems working together takes driver assistance technology to a new level of performance.”

Bendix safety technologies are not intended to enable or encourage aggressive driving, but to complement safe driving practices. No commercial vehicle safety technology can replace skilled, alert drivers exercising safe driving techniques and proactive, comprehensive driver training. Responsibility for the safe operation of the vehicle remains with the driver at all times.

Wingman Fusion is part of Bendix’s ever-growing portfolio of technology that delivers on safety, plus other areas critical to the success of fleets and owner-operators: reliability, performance, efficiency, and lower cost of vehicle ownership. Stronger return on investment in advanced equipment and systems encourages their adoption, improving everyone’s safety on the road.

The Fusion system camera is powered by the Mobileye System-on-Chip EyeQ processor with state-of-the-art-vision algorithms.