City Brake Control has received the Euro NCAP Advanced 2013 award.
City driving can be slightly stressful at the best of times, which is why Fiat developed a novel braking system designed to help drivers cope with the unpredictability of urban traffic.
Now the company has picked up an award recognising the way in which the system, called City Brake Control, can enhance safety.
Fitted as standard on the Fiat 500L Trekking and optional for the Fiat Panda and the rest of the Fiat 500L range, City Brake Control uses a special laser sensor to detect whether there any obstacles or other cars in front of the vehicle and automatically applies the brakes if the motorist doesn't do so.
It's always activated when the engine is turned on and enabled when the car is travelling at between 3 and 19 mph. Drivers have full control over activating and deactivating the feature to suit them.
The system has been such a hit that it has received the Euro NCAP Advanced 2013 award after being assessed by an independent Euro NCAP laboratory, which found that collisions were avoided at speeds of up to 30 km per hour.
Fiat initially tested City Brake Control on both roads and a test track by driving cars at differing speeds to test the response of the technology.
The laser sensor is of the Light Detection and Ranging type and is mounted on the top part of the windscreen to help it interact with Fiat's Electronic Stability Control system.
Three functions are combined in the City Brake Control feature: Automatic Emergency Braking, Prefill – which prefills the brakes to speed up their response – and Brake Assist, which increases the sensitivity of the hydraulic brake assist function in an emergency situation to offer a shorter braking distance.
"Depending on certain parameters (such as road surface conditions, vehicle dynamics and trajectories, position of obstacles and condition of the tyres etc), by cutting in, the system can completely avoid or mitigate the consequences of a collision (Collision Avoidance or Collision Mitigation)," Fiat said in a statement.
Posted by Peter Murray