The Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe (KVB) are setting a good example: since October, the retrofitting of a turn-off assistant has been completed on all 236 buses of the company. This means that the KVB is already complying well ahead of time with EU Regulation 2019/2144, according to which all new buses must have a turn-off assistant from July 2024. Even more, the KVB “overfulfilled” their target by also retrofitting their older buses.
The Jerusalem-based company “mobileye” was selected as the supplier for the turn assistance system. This was preceded by extensive tests with systems from several manufacturers, in which “mobileye” proved to be the best in the opinion of the KVB.
The turn-off assistant uses a wide-angle camera to enable the driver to see the area next to the car that is in the blind spot for the rear-view mirror. The camera is located on the right side of the bus at roof level. The image that the camera captures is transmitted to a monitor at the driver’s seat so that the driver can see what he could not see before. And this allows him to react so that scooter and cyclist riders, e-scooter drivers and pedestrians are protected – and not run over.
The retrofits began in March 2021 and cost a total of 170,000 euros. Each individual bus thus accounted for 720.34 euros.
14.12.2022
