The pre-crash safety (PCS) system, the world’s first such system, identifies inevitable obstacles a split second prior to collision, automatically tightens passenger seatbelts, and activates a pre-crash brake system to reduce vehicle speed.

Key components for the system include

• Driving Assistance ECU which controls all operations of the PCS system, based on information from the stereo image-processing ECU, and from the front and rear millimeter-wave radar. This ECU also controls the radar cruise control system at all speeds and the lane-keeping assist system.
• Millimeter-wave radar, which detects vehicles and obstacles ahead.
• Pre-crash electronic control unit (ECU), which processes information gathered by the radar to determine if the vehicle will hit the obstacle, and then sends signals regarding distance and relative speed of the obstacle to the pre-crash seatbelt ECU and the brake system.
• Pre-crash seatbelt ECU that retracts the seatbelt mechanism based on signals from the driving assistance ECU. The new pre-crash seatbelt ECU is 25 percent smaller in volume and less than half the weight of a conventional pre-crash seatbelt ECU.
• Stereo image- processing ECU which rapidly processes image signals received from a stereo camera that photographs obstacles appearing in front of the vehicle, and then transmits these signals to the driving assistance ECU. This ECU uses the information, as well as data sent from the vehicle’s front and rear millimeter-wave radar, to control the PCS system.

DENSO Technology – Leading the World

• DENSO’s small, light-weight millimeter-wave radar can detect obstacles over a horizontal plane with the world’s widest angle, 20 degrees, and excellent detection accuracy of 0.5 degrees.