LIVONIA, MI --- TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. has been presented with the Best Automotive Innovation Award 2008 by Italy's Automotive Technical Association (ATA). 

The award honors TRW for the integration of its intelligent safety systems combining lane departure warning, electrically powered steering and electronic stability control. These technologies were launched on the Lancia Delta in June.

"We are honored to accept this prestigious award and to be recognized in the industry for these advanced safety systems," said Peter J. Lake, executive vice president of sales and business development for TRW Automotive. "The breadth and depth of TRW's safety knowledge enables us to support vehicle manufacturers as they bring driver assist systems and integrated technologies into the market. In the Lancia Delta, TRW's sensors, algorithms and electronics provide information that enables the actuation of the most appropriate systems to help deliver enhanced driving comfort and safety."

TRW's lane departure warning system uses video camera technology integrated with electrically powered steering to enable haptic lane feedback. The video camera detects when the vehicle is drifting toward the lane markings and the electric steering provides the driver with gentle guidance/haptic feedback through the steering wheel to stay in lane.

Steering torque control is a technology made possible by the integration of steering and electronic stability control. The integration of these systems can deliver braking performance improvements on split coefficient (mu) surfaces -- such as two wheels braking on pavement and two wheels braking on ice -- as well as driver support and comfort through the steering control.

Giorgio Marsiaj, TRW's global vice president sales for the Fiat Group, added: "The synergies between Fiat's competence in vehicle behavior and TRW's strengths in systems integration and component design enable us to work together to bring these systems from concept to production. It is very satisfying to be recognized by the industry for the intelligent safety systems we're delivering to the market today."

The technical and scientific committee of ATA stated that TRW gained this award because of "the importance of such integrated driver assistance systems not only for comfort, but also for improving overall vehicle safety."

The ATA Automotive Innovation Award is presented annually for new developments in products or processes in the automotive industry. ATA is Italy's foremost association of technical experts, organizing conferences and publishing journals for the automotive industry.