Delphi Shows How Active Safety Can Help to Keep Vehicle Rate Trend Going Downward

Delphi takes Active Safety to Washington at MEMA Ride & Drive

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Delphi Corp. (PINKSHEETS: DPHIQ) is demonstrating several of its active safety technologies at the Motor & Equipment Manufacturing Association (MEMA) Ride and Drive on Oct. 4-5, 2007, here at RFK Stadium. Delphi’s active safety technologies are designed to help prevent accidents.

Recent NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) reports show that the U.S. is experiencing the lowest highway fatality rate recorded in 15 years. NHTSA attributes the lower rates to tougher safety requirements and the introduction of new technologies.

“Legislation helps drivers develop safer driving behavior, but it is impractical to have a law that covers every bad habit,” said Beth Schwarting, executive in charge of Delphi’s Safety product business unit. “Active safety technologies can help to close the gap between where we are today on vehicle safety and where we would like to be as a society.”

Automotive industry studies have shown that giving a driver just one extra second of warning time can help prevent many accidents. Delphi’s active safety products are designed to help give the driver a little more time to react to potential accident situations to help prevent them from occurring. Delphi’s collision mitigation technologies help to reduce the severity if a crash can’t be avoided.

The technology in Delphi’s active safety portfolio, including adaptive cruise control, (ACC) forward collision warning, headway alert, side alert, pre-crash sensing and lane departure warning are all designed to provide the driver with more information.

“Delphi’s active safety systems provide the driver with more tools to help avoid the accident,” said William Hanna director of safety systems engineering. “The more safety aids we can provide in the vehicle, the safer our roads will become.”

Active Safety Systems at the MEMA Ride and Drive

At the MEMA Ride & Drive, Delphi is showing a specially equipped luxury vehicle with adaptive cruise control with stop & go, pre-crash sensing with autonomous braking and lane departure warning. It is also demonstrating side alert on a pick-up truck and showcasing its integrated safety system for commercial vehicles. Delphi’s integrated safety system includes headway alert, forward collision warning, lane departure warning and side alert features. Delphi has integrated these proven safety systems into a single system and is demonstrating it on a Class-8 heavy truck.

ACC with Stop & Go and Pre-crash Sensing with Autonomous Braking

Delphi’s ACC system uses precision long-range radar to detect slower moving vehicles in the ACC equipped vehicle’s path and automatically manages speed to maintain a selectable time-gap behind the in-lane vehicle ahead. ACC also serves as the platform for other safety systems like collision warning and mitigation technologies.

One of the first suppliers to launch radar based ACC system in 1999, Delphi has continued to add features and functionality to its ACC including full speed range functionality stop & go, autonomous braking and pre-crash sensing. With the stop & go feature the system can bring the vehicle to a stop if the traffic in front of it has come to a stop. Delphi’s pre-crash sensing feature determines the trajectory of the oncoming target, time of impact, impact velocity and point of impact. The system uses this information to help protect vehicle occupants by initiating the appropriate safety countermeasures such as seat-belt pretensioners and activate braking automatically if a collision is unavoidable.

Side Alert

Motorists changing lanes or engaging in other maneuvers face challenges from blind spots that exist to the sides of most vehicles. While vehicle designers are working to eliminate these blind spots, Delphi’s active safety technologies can help mitigate their impact. Delphi’s side alert system helps alert drivers of vehicles in their side blind spots when changing lanes. When a moving vehicle is detected entering the side blind spot, a visual alert is provided via an illuminated icon in the side view mirror.

The low-cost system is offered in a small package that can be integrated into side mirrors, taillights or side body fascia.

Integrated Safety System

Delphi’s Integrated Safety System on a Class 8 Heavy truck features headway alert, forward collision warning, lane departure warning and side alert. Delphi’s headway alert measures the distance and relative speed of vehicles ahead using a radar sensor located in the front of the vehicle. The headway alert feature assists the driver in maintaining the appropriate following distance to in-lane traffic ahead of the vehicle. The system provides visual or audible alerts to the driver when a pre-determined timed-headway boundary to the next preceding in-lane vehicle is violated to help prevent accidents.

Delphi’s Lane Departure Warning system helps to reduce vehicle crashes. It tracks painted lane boundaries and alerts the driver should the vehicle begin to drift out of its lane, helping to greatly reduce one of the largest causes of vehicle crashes.

Delphi — Decades of Experience in Supplying Safety Products

Delphi began developing its active safety portfolio nearly twenty years ago and has successfully introduced many passive safety technologies into the market for nearly 35 years. Delphi supplies OEMs with passive safety technologies that include seatbelts, a full line of airbags, including low-risk deployment, passive occupant detection, rollover detection and airbag control units to complement its active safety list of products.

“After many years of contributing to roadway safety with our passive safety products, we are extremely excited to see manufacturers start to roll-out our active safety technologies in new vehicles,” said Schwarting. “We firmly believe that these features offer the next level of protection that will help improve overall roadway safety.”

For more information about Delphi, visit www.delphi.com.