Innovative Hill Start Assistance Device

The requirements for a new vehicle to become a sales success go beyond the emission and safety compliances, low fuel consumption and attractive design. The market is constantly more demanding for innovative features that either solve a well-known problem or offer solution for matters that make the user's life simpler. All conditions above must be achieved in the most economic way, since the price of the car defines its competitiveness. The hill start in manual or automated manual transmission vehicles is faced by most users as inconvenient situation. In the time interval between brake pedal releasing and gas pedal pressing, the car might roll backwards, causing an unsafe or at least uncomfortable situation. The device currently presented offers a simple solution that assists the driver in such situation, keeping the vehicle stopped while the driver releases the brake pedal and requests enough engine torque to safely start in hill condition. The simplicity of the device allows its assembly in manual, automated manual or even automatic transmission cars, with or without anti-lock brake system and it also ensures its use from the lowest to the top range of vehicles. The operation principle is based on a directional valve assembled in the brake line which is only activated when all the logic conditions are redundantly checked on a hill start situation. An accelerometer is used to identify the exact hill inclination in which is the vehicle and calculate the required engine torque for a safe start.