A new way to get hitched

SOUTH AFRICANS love to tow things with their cars, their double-cabs, their SUVS. Boats, trailers, horse boxes, caravans – you name it, we can’t seem to resist hitching it up and towing it. Brave the country’s highways during the holidays or long weekends, and every third vehicle is pulling a trailer.

But the physical task of actually hitching up a trailer can be tricky, especially if you’re doing it alone. Manually moving a heavy trailer into position is difficult, not to mention reversing the car and its tow bar into exactly the right spot.

Pursuing solutions to decades-old problems such as these ‘that are lacking women’s perspectives’, international technology company Semcon assembled an all-woman team (see pic) to take on the challenge. They came up with Automatic Trailer Connection (or ATC), a concept that enables cars and trailers to connect themselves automatically, without the driver having to leave the car. An important aspect was that the solution must be userfriendly, and be able to meld seamlessly with autonomous cars of the future (and present).

‘It’s easy to lose perspective – not least that of women – when the majority of technical developers are men,’ explains Markus Granlund, CEO of Semcon. ‘Because if people don’t consider a product problematic, there’s not all that much chance of them changing it. For us at Semcon, understanding end users of all kinds is crucial so that we can develop products that benefit people as much as possible.’

And he’s right – tow bars have looked more or less the same since 1932. It’s about time the concept underwent a rethink. HOW ATC WORKS The concept is based on smart systems already found in top car brands.

When the car and trailer are about two metres apart, the car’s camera sensor identifies the trailer, and the connection procedure begins. The driver presses ‘Auto Attach’ on the in-car display, and the car reverses autonomously towards the trailer.

The car and trailer are both connected to the cloud, a system that enables them to communicate and position themselves perfectly.

Then, instead of the conventional tow bar we all know, there’s a socket in the car’s bumper that secures and powers the trailer. There is no more need for loose cables – it functions the same as plugging in a normal device, and the connection is made automatically by the car itself.

A locking system inside the car’s socket secures the trailer, and the in-car display provides information on the weight and balance of the load, speed limits, brake lights and more.

The trailer’s jockey wheel is automatically retracted using an electric motor, which also comes into play to achieve the correct height during the connection sequence.

IMPLEMENTATION While still at concept stage, the development team has a positive outlook. ‘This concept was mainly devised to demonstrate what new perspectives can bring, but we’re hoping car and trailer manufacturers will be interested in taking it further in future,’ says Sofie Askenbom, project manager and digital development officer on the programme.

Let’s hope our towing-crazy nation will soon see this trailer connection solution available in South Africa.