The Fiat Ducato is the first light commercial vehicle to meet Level 2 for autonomous driving thanks to modern assistance systems. This allows the technology to take over some of the driver's tasks. But there's a catch.
The record is frightening. According to the latest known figures from the Federal Statistical Office, there were over 2019 accidents involving personal injury in 14.000 Transport, i.e. light commercial vehicles, were involved. Two-thirds of them were even the cause. This is one of the reasons why Fiat now offers many assistance systems for the bestseller Ducato that can prevent or at least mitigate such accidents. The transporter, which was also optically upgraded at the same time, can even be partly autonomous according to level 2, since it relieves the driver of some tasks. The Ducato is the first light commercial vehicle capable of this.
Modern technology for work
The electronic helpers include a speed limiter, an emergency braking system that also recognizes pedestrians and cyclists, and traffic sign recognition. In addition, there is distance radar, which automatically follows the vehicle in front in traffic jams and the following "stop and go", as well as a lane keeping system, which keeps the Ducato in the middle of the lane and automatically intervenes in the steering in the event of deviations.
A digital rear-view mirror should also contribute to safety, which transmits a sharp color image of what is happening behind the van to the driver. Other extras include a crosswind assistant, which, like trailer control, is intended to ensure greater stability. The Fiat Ducato was the first van to be awarded “Platinum” for the best safety in the “Euro NCAP” safety test.
Standard gear looks different...
However, the condition for this plus in safety is the willingness of the operators of transporter fleets to order the expensive extras offered at the time of purchase. According to ADAC, however, the rather modest standard equipment that lacks all these safety systems is what is mainly bought. That's why the car club has now tested 19 vans that only had standard equipment. 18 of them failed. Since in the "Euro NCAP" test the candidates were evaluated with their full equipment, the ADAC even speaks of a "deceptive package" and sums it up: "Safety only comes at an additional cost".
The development of the assistance systems is more expensive and is naturally passed on to the customer. It's no different with passenger cars, but the technology there usually finds its way quickly into series production. The legislature is helpful for improving the safety of light commercial vehicles: an emergency brake assistant must be on board for new developments from July of this year, and for all new customer registrations from 2024. Pedestrian and cyclist detection will later become mandatory. Fiat is at least well prepared with its Ducato. However, the systems mentioned are not available for the purely electric version of the pack donkey, as it is still on an older platform.
