Only nationwide glass repair service to offer customers such a service
At Autoglass®, as part of the world’s largest vehicle glass repair and replacement specialist, we have a long history of leading the industry in technological and digital innovation. In the 1980s we led the way, becoming the first to offer chip repair technology.
In 2016, we believe we will be the first to offer a nationwide calibration solution to the UK’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) enabled car parc. Plus, we believe the coverage we can offer is market leading at over 96% of vehicles with ADAS. We have invested heavily to bring our solution to market, to offer the same high level of customer service and quality to this new area of expertise as our brand has stood for, for the past 44 years.
What is ADAS?
Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are technologies developed to automate, adapt or enhance vehicle systems for safety and better driving. Safety features are designed to avoid collisions and accidents by offering software that alerts the driver to potential problems, or avoids collisions by implementing safeguards and taking over control of the vehicle. ADAS systems come in many forms, including autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind spot warning, driver alerts and night vision technologies and are one of the fastest growing segments in car electronics.
How does the technology work and when is calibration required?
ADAS technology can be based upon camera systems, sensor technology, car data networks, vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure systems. Camera systems are often mounted to the windscreen behind the rear view mirror housing to function correctly and so calibration needs to happen following a windscreen replacement to ensure these safety systems are working correctly.
At Autoglass® ensuring safety on the road is of paramount importance, meaning that the vehicle manufacturers’ assertion that a calibration is mandatory cannot be ignored. This approach has been further validated by research we commissioned from the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and by Thatcham in recent studies that confirm that the only way to ensure that the camera system is functioning as expected is to calibrate the system after a windscreen change. TRL states that not to do so could create a potential safety hazard for the vehicle occupants and potentially to other road users.
If the camera is misaligned then this could have a significant impact on the functionality of the ADAS system, particularly at speed. Small, unexpected changes in the pitch angle of the camera can mean the difference between a vehicle avoiding a crash or not.
A very small number of bodyshops and independent vehicle glass repair and replacement specialists have the capability to calibrate ADAS and all of those identified operated from a single location rather than providing a nationwide capability.
No other nationwide vehicle glass repair and replacement specialist has yet launched an ADAS offering.
A comprehensive launch solution
● We launched our full nationwide ADAS calibration solution in March 2016 and will offer this service to every customer whose vehicle requires calibration.
● We will provide both static and dynamic calibration from launch, underpinned by a robust and automated notification process, and a world class technical solution.
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