Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Caddy in focus: Up to 19 driver assist systems on board
giugno 21, 2021 - Volkswagen

Caddy in focus: Up to 19 driver assist systems on board

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  • Safer and easier to drive: five new systems 14 further improved
  • Travel Assist: automated vehicle management over the full speed range
  • Safer: warns when changing lane of any vehicle in the ‘blind spot’
  • Emergency Assist: all the way to automatic braking to a halt
  • More controlled: multifunction steering wheel with capacitive sensors
  • Trailer Assist: parking a trailer becomes child’s play with the Caddy

Hannover, 18 June 2021 – Numerous new and enhanced innovations in #volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ #caddy make the city van and family MPV even safer: these include, for instance, the total of up to 19 available driver assist systems. They all serve to get the passengers on board even more comfortably and effortlessly from A to B. Five assist systems on board are completely new for the fifth-generation #caddy and all others have been further improved. 

With the latest evolution of the MQB (Modular Transverse Matrix), numerous new technologies make their entry into #volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ #caddy range: innovative assist systems such as Travel Assist and the new Turn-off Assist make the vehicle safer and easier to drive.

Five of the 19 assist systems are completely new in the #caddy and the others have been extensively updated. The new features include, for example, Travel Assist, which, for the first time in a #volkswagen commercial vehicle, facilitates assisted driving across the full speed range. Travel Assist is thus an innovation in a commercial vehicle. The aim here is automated vehicle control at what is called ‘Level 2’ – and indeed across the full driving speed range of 0 to 210 km/h. That means monitoring of the driving situation and the assisted longitudinal and transverse control of the vehicle with optimised surroundings visualisation and steering performance. In conjunction with Emergency Assist, the system initiates automatic braking to a halt in case of any driver inactivity.

To enable this the system accesses multiple functions, including the ACC Adaptive Cruise Control for linear guidance and the Lane Assist lane-keeping system for lateral guidance. Travel Assist is activated via the multifunction steering wheel. To keep the driver better informed, a new indicator has been developed in the Digital Cockpit, which provides advanced information on the vehicle’s surroundings as a virtual image. It shows, for instance, the number of available lanes, the vehicle or vehicles in front of or alongside the driver’s own vehicle and the respective distances.

In connection with Travel Assist the Caddy’s redesigned multifunction steering wheel is equipped with capacitive sensors. The background to this is that for legal and #safety reasons the driver should permanently monitor the system, for instance by having permanent control of the steering wheel. The wheel’s new capacitive sensors now ensure precise detection of even a lightly touching hand, thus avoiding any false alarms. In other words, for as long as the hands are touching the steering wheel, the system now no longer generates any prompts to steer.

It’s sufficient, therefore, just to touch the steering wheel. However, if the driver lets go of the wheel for longer than ten seconds, visual and audible warning signals draw their attention to this. The driver must now react without delay and take hold of the steering wheel, as otherwise Emergency Assist is activated and the #caddy is automatically brought to a stop.

Everyone using the new #caddy as a towing vehicle will also welcome the Trailer Assist function, which makes manoeuvring backwards with a trailer child’s play. It is thus now available for the first time in the city delivery vans’ A segment. #volkswagen Commercial Vehicles customers are already familiar with this trailer assist function from the Crafter, where it was first used. There and in #volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ Transporter 6.1 it already makes parking and reversing trailers easier.

Put in concrete terms, Trailer Assist relieves the #caddy driver of the task of mentally adjusting to the fact that when reversing with a trailer the steering wheel has to be turned to the left to make the trailer go to the right – and vice versa. The system is also designed to make it easier to reverse in an exactly straight line over relatively long distances (e.g. long driveways). With Trailer Assist this all works almost automatically.

One example: to manoeuvre the #caddy and trailer in reverse from the carriageway into a driveway, the driver stops at a suitable point and engages reverse gear. The system is activated by pushing a button. The current and possible steering angles are now visualised in the instrument cluster. These are computed by image processing algorithms based on data from the rear-view camera system, which monitors and analyses the articulation angle between the car and the trailer. By using the mirror adjustment switch, which serves as a sort of joystick, the driver is able to adjust the direction that they want the trailer to go in. The #caddy executes the steering commands entered by the driver, who only needs to operate the accelerator pedal and the brake.

The driving direction of the car-trailer combination is set by automatic control of the electromechanical power steering, also a highlight of the #caddy. Compared to the previous model, the steering ratio is much more direct. As a result, the required steering angle when manoeuvring, in city traffic and on country roads is noticeably reduced. It now takes just 2.5 rather than the previous three turns of the steering wheel to turn it from its maximum left to its maximum right stop. The turning circle itself is just 11.4 m in the case of the 4.5 m #caddy with short wheelbase and 12.1 m in the case of 35.3 cm longer #caddy Maxi.

Also new: the ‘Turn-off Assist’ as a component of Front Assist (comes as standard on the passenger car #caddy in the EU). The Turn-off Assist can help to avoid accidents when a driver is turning off across the opposing carriageway. When turning off in this way, a #caddy with Turn-off Assist is automatically brought to a stop (with a simultaneous visual and audible warning) if there is a vehicle approaching on carriageway to be crossed. Depending on the speed of the two vehicles, Turn-off Assist is able within its system limits to prevent the accident or minimise its consequences.

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