ADAS & Safety Systems: Traxen to produce 400 iQ-Cruise® units for United Road Services
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USA – Traxen Inc has announced a contract with United Road Services Inc, a haulage firm, also based in Plymouth, Michigan, to begin production of a smart-adaptive cruise control technology for Class 8 trucks which Traxen claims can reduce annual fuel consumption by 10%.
The contract to produce 400 units of the ‘iQ-Cruise marks Traxen’s first order such since it was founded and follows on from year-long pilot testing with United Road Services. The iQ-Cruise is designed by Traxen and assembled from components supplied by third parties. iQ-Cruise’ monitors road conditions, gradient, curvature, traffic patterns and weather conditions up to three miles ahead of the vehicle and adjusts vehicle speed accordingly. Driver alerts are also provided via an onboard graphical user interface.
Traxen’s contention is that driverless solutions will not be deployable in the next 7-10 years. Their business proposition is an ADAS product that will achieve fuel efficiency and safety gains in the meantime and will continue to have applicability even after full autonomy becomes commercially viable. Traxen claims that the fuel savings that would be achieved by all U.S. haulage fleets employing its adaptive cruise control technology would be equivalent to five billion gallons of fuel, or 50 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year; or, a potential cost saving of USD 7,000 per truck per year.
Ali Maleki, CEO and founder of Traxen, said: “During the trial phase, the United Road team’s use of our intuitive technology averaged significantly higher than the industry average utilization of basic Adaptive Cruise Control. Some drivers utilized the system close to 80%. And in our test fleet of three tractors, we averaged well over 90% utilization and averaged fuel economy increases of 10%.”
Installation of the iQ-Cruise in United Road’s fleet is expected to happen within the next 12- 18 months. The product is also available to other fleet operators as well as original equipment manufacturers. Traxen states that the product is currently being piloted by other commercial fleets.
Traxen Inc is a software technology start-up which was founded in 2018 in Plymouth, Michigan, in the heart of the automotive supply chain in the Detroit area. It specializes in designing advanced driver-assistance systems for the truck segment. With thanks to Ali Maleki for kindly providing the information in this article.