EU-351/2012. History The concept and a working model of this technology was invented and fitted to a Rover SD1 in England by British inventor Nick Parish in 1988. Patent application No 8911571.1 was made in 1989. The first production lane departure warning system in Europe was developed by the United States company Iteris for Mercedes Actros commercial trucks. The system debuted in 2000, and is now available on many new cars, SUVs, and trucks. In 2002, the Iteris system became available on Freightliner Trucks' North American vehicles. In both these systems, the driver is warned of unintentional lane departures by an audible rumble strip sound generated on the side of the vehicle drifting out of the lane. No warnings are generated if, before crossing the lane, an active turn signal is given by the driver. 2001 Nissan Motors began offering a lane-keeping support system on the Cima sold in Japan. 2002 Toyota introduced its lane monitoring system on models such as the Caldina and Alphard sold in Japan; this system warns the driver if it appears the vehicle is beginning to drift out of its lane. 2003 Honda launched its Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS) on the Inspire. It provides up to 80% of steering torque to keep the car in its lane on the highway. It is also designed to make highway driving less cumbersome, by minimizing the driver's steering input. A camera, mounted at the top of the windshield just above the rear-view mirror, scans the road ahead in a 40-degree radius, picking up the dotted white lines used to divide lane boundaries on the highway. The computer recognizes that the driver is "locked into" a particular lane, monitors how sharp a curve is, and uses factors such as yaw and vehicle speed to calculate the steering input required. 2004 In 2004, the first passenger-vehicle system available in North America was jointly developed by Iteris and Valeo for Nissan on the Infiniti FX and (in 2005) the M vehicles. In this system, a camera (mounted in the overhead console above the mirror) monitors the lane markings on a roadway. A warning tone is triggered to alert the driver when the vehicle begins to drift over the markings. Also in 2004, Toyota added a lane keeping assist feature to the Crown Majesta which can apply a small counter-steering force to aid in keeping the vehicle in its lane. 2005