U.S. Army Reviews Truck Technology at Hearing
IV Quarterly Issue #3
October 1999

An update on TACOM's National Automotive Center and its ambitious plans for heavy truck technology research.

Within the U.S. Army Tank & Armaments Command (TACOM), which has the responsibility to procure all Army vehicles, the National Automotive Center (NAC) is an R&D unit focusing primarily on heavy trucks.  Testifying at the NTSB hearing, Paul Skaly, NAC Deputy Director, reported that their $20M annual research program has three areas of focus:  hardware-to-environment (including collision warning, ACC, yaw control, and lane detection), human-to-environment, and human-to-hardware (driver-vehicle interfaces, including heads-up displays).

A key NAC initiative is the 21st Century Truck, which seeks to develop truck designs with significant enhancements in fuel efficiency, emissions, and safety.  Other U.S. government agency partners include the Department of Energy, USDOT, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).  Several industry and academic partners are participating as well.  Areas of safety focus within this program are collision avoidance, ACC, HUD, GPS, crashworthiness, and occupant protection.

A steadfast believer in the power of demonstrations to create advocates in the user community, NAC is initiating a Technology Demo Project, with plans to instrument 100 vehicles (50 military / 50 commercial) with active safety systems, and to purchase an additional 100 vehicles per year to do more demonstrations.  Skalny said the program will start with a solicitation in FY01, and demonstrations in FY02.

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