Safety Performance and Robustness of Heavy Vehicle AVCS

Dynamically, heavy trucks are inherently different than passenger cars.  In addition to the increase rollover risk arising from an elevated center of gravity height, heavy trucks possess additional failure modes such as jackknifing and excessive trailer swing.  As a response to these issues, significant research has been performed in the last three decades to establish safety metrics for heavy trucks based on dynamic testing.  This research has had an impact on determining acceptable size and weight restrictions for heavy vehicles and on the actual design of heavy trucks for increased safety.