Automatic Brakes Stopped Berlin Truck During Christmas Market Attack (dw.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Deutsche Welle: The truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12, came to a halt due an automatic braking system, according to German media reports on Wednesday. The automatic braking system potentially saved the lives of many more people in the recent terrorist attack. An investigation by newspaper "Suddeutsche Zeitung" and broadcasters "NDR" and "WDR" found the Scania R 450 semi-trailer stopped after between 70 and 80 meters (250 feet). The system was reportedly engaged after sensing a collision. Previous reports speculated that the truck had driven erratically and stopped due to the heroic actions of the truck's Polish driver, who lay fatally wounded in the cabin. In 2012 the European Union adopted regulations requiring all new trucks exceeding 3,500 kilograms be fitted with advanced emergency braking systems. The systems initially alert drivers and then take evasive action. The regulation was adopted to reduce the number of rear end collisions by trucks.

Comments

Double edged sword

[Trachman]

Could have stopped. Should have stopped.... Technology is evolving fast.

If this technologically non-savvy terrorist had no idea about automated braking, just think about technologically savvy terrorist who will be able to program automatic trucks to ignore collision by hacking certain sensors. We are talking about automatic road killing robot.

How would you stop such autonomous cargo truck with no driver to shoot at?

Re:Double edged sword

[AmiMoJo]

Fortunately you have to be kind of an idiot to want to murder people like this anyway.

Re:Double edged sword

[mysidia]

Need to keep ahead of them by making mandatory Automatic self-testing with Error memory until serviced by a certified shop And monitoring of line pressure and devices, at least at engine start, periodically when idling or running at low speed, when initially accelerating from a full stop, And Failsafe Interlocks to the automatic braking systems To prevent applying power after an error is detected in the braking system.

If the braking system fails to self-test, or Auto-braking has engaged but accelerator still pushed, then the engine computer will throttle the engine down to Zero and if accelerating after 1 second, kill drive power.

Re:Double edged sword

[goose-incarnated]

How would you stop such autonomous cargo truck with no driver to shoot at?

Fortunately you have to be kind of an idiot to want to murder people like this anyway.

That fact doesn't lessen the threat; the world is filled with idiots, after all.

Re:Double edged sword

[AmiMoJo]

Sure, but if you strive to make the world idiot-proof it sucks for everyone.

We shouldn't react to events like this by compounding the loss of life with a loss of rights, loss of dignity and loss of humanity. Most Germans can still remember what that was like.

Re:Double edged sword

[AmiMoJo]

1. There have not been "hoards" of Muslim hoodlums entering Germany. Most of the refugees are actually fleeing Islamic terrorists.

2. The guy had his asylum application processed in good time. The problem was they could not deport him because his country would not take him back.

3. The falling is that the security services knew about him but didn't stop him.

This does not warrant your extreme, xenophobic reaction.

Re:Double edged sword

[ravenshrike]

Well, it's good to know that in the event of a zombie apocalypse Europe will be completely screwed because none of their large vehicles will be able to plow through the zombie hordes or parked cars.

Re:Double edged sword

[Dare nMc]

Sorry boss, despite your arrogance and confidence, your more wrong than right. I have done SAE brake certifications for off and on road vehicles. Most vehicles probably could not be brought to a complete stop from speed if they engine was at full power by brakes alone. The 2 problem are: 1) the brakes do not have sufficient cooling, the engine/transmission have much better cooling, and thus can produce power for a longer time period. Most brakes cannot sustain high power for more than a minute before fading, and will eventually fail all together. Also (for most vehicles) the brakes do not have the same mechanical advantage, since they are at the wheels, and do not have a gear reduction. They apply a fixed maximum torque, at 60 MPH my pickups brakes could produce 800 HP in braking force, but at 10 MPH that would be closer to 100 HP. My trucks engine can easily produce 250 HP at the rear wheels, down to about 5 mph, due to it having real low gearing for towing. If in my pickup the brakes came on full at 70 mph at full throttle, it would take a fairly long stop to get down to 15- 25 mph or so before they would equallize, until the brakes faded and failed, then It would accelerate again. This balance will vary widely based on the power and gearing of the vehicle, but most cars would be pretty iffy on if they could be brought to a complete stop, almost all would slow to fairly slow speed though. Of course at these low speeds, it wouldn't take much outside force to stop the vehicle.

Re:what, wait a second

[Sique]

After you already hit something? What would you win by not hitting the brakes? People rear ending you still have their airbags and seatbelts and crumple zones, which will protect them from the worst. People in front of you don't. So breaking and getting some 40 ton heap of steel into stillstand as soon as possible once it is out of control (and because it hit something, there is enough proof to call it out of control) is in any case better than let it run to save the people driving to close behind it a few bucks by keeping their cars undamaged.

Re:SubjectIsSubject

[Kierthos]

I'm pretty sure both books are routinely ignored.

I went to school with a number of Muslim students. They didn't attack me, or condemn me, or anything like that. I was actually in a study group with a couple of them for one semester. And at least one of them routinely ignored the Koran's prohibition on drinking.

I worked with at least one Muslim co-worker at my last job. He didn't attack me, or condemn me, or anything like that. I had a number of Muslim customers (including at least one who converted to Islam). None of them attacked me, or condemned me, or anything like that.

There are an estimated 3.3 million Muslims living in the U.S. I think we would have noticed if most of them were routinely attacking Christians.

It is not the religion, per se, that is the problem. It is fundamentalists or extremists who claim to be part of the religion that are the problem.

Re:You gave Trump's plan

[91degrees]

Was that before or after he called all Mexicans criminals

He didn't.

But hey, fake news is only fake when we disagree with it, right.

Re:You gave Trump's plan

[ITRambo]

Mexican's aren't converting or killing other people to make them Mexicans. Islamist's do this, are instructed to do this in their "holy" book. Salman Rushdee was correct. The Koran is the satanic verses. Only evil would do what the insane and difficult to read Koran would have you do. Keep them in their own lands to eternally fight and kill each other over which Islamist faction is the "correct" one.