ZF's third gen OnGuardMAX offers big improvements in automated emergency braking

We’re inside a tractor-trailer barreling toward a mock Prius with California plates in East Liberty, Ohio at 50 mph when ZF’s latest OnGuardMAX Autonomous Emergency Braking System kicks in and quickly brings the rig to a standstill a few yards ahead of the faux car.

ZF also made its Electric Power Steering available to reporters in the Peterbilt shown on the right during its Technology Day this week in East Liberty, Ohio. The Peterbilt on the left had conventional hydraulic steering which made steering through the cones noisier and required more effort.Commercial Carrier JournalA moment or so after recovering from the half-g stop (or roughly six meters per second squared deceleration), the driver of the International LT, ZF Field Service Team Leader Chuck Brodie, explains that he did not apply the brakes. Instead, radar and a camera working in tandem honed-in on the stationary object and within microseconds the system determined the rate of deceleration needed to avoid a collision.

Prior to automatically engaging the brakes, ZF’s OnGuardACTIVE gave Brodie an audible beeping alert, a visual alert on the driver’s side screen and a haptic alert by way of a light pulse on the brakes. Since Brodie did not hit the brakes the system didn’t waste time in automatically applying the brakes, causing all three of the truck’s occupants, including this reporter, to lurch forward as the rig came to safe, smooth stop.

“The camera and radar both saw the object and both decided to react to it with enough confidence to come in with that high level of deceleration,” Brodie explained from the driver’s seat on the Transportation Research Center test track.

Wabco Maxxus 2.0 disc brakes on the International LT, along with drum brakes on the unloaded trailer, quickly took commands from the third generation OnGuardMAX system, which – compared to the prior iteration – has increased automated braking in front of a stationary vehicle from 20mph to 50mph.

The next brake test will have the truck beelining toward a mannequin on a bike. The truck will be approaching what Brodie and the rest of the ZF R&D team calls the VRU, or vulnerable road user, at 20mph.