Autonomous cars are improving.  Recently, Sergey Brin from Google announced their goal of more than 1 million miles of autonomous driving without any human intervention.  There is no timeline for this goal, but it is a step in the right direction.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/googles-autonomous-car-target-1m-accident-free-miles.html

 

Dr. Dennis Hong from Virginia Tech talks about Autonomous Cars

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/17/hong.car.blind.drivers/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

This week Nevada state legislators passed a law that would require the department of transportation to “adopt regulations authorizing the operation of autonomous vehicles on highways within the State of Nevada.”

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/23/nevada-prepares-itself-for-the-imminent-rise-of-driverless-cars/

Out of all that I have seen at the Detroit Auto Show, what impressed me most was the Volvo XC60. With a base price of ~$35,000, the Volvo is the most affordable vehicle using the most advanced safety technology on the market today. Not only does it contain collision warning systems, but also it contains elementary forms of collision avoidance to mitigate rear end collisions. It is truly a momentous step in the evolutionary path towards autonomous cars.

Here is a listing of the intelligent safety features of the Volvo XC60.

Collision Warning with Brake Support


Using a radar system in the grill, the XC60 will monitor the distance of the car in front. If the distance between the XC60 and the car in front quickly decreases, the driver is warned with an audible beep. If no action is taken, the XC60 will further warn the driver by pretensing the seat belts in preparation for a collision. Additionally, the brakes are primed (i.e. the brake pads are brought very close to the disk) to allow the driver to brake more quickly. If the driver still takes no action, and a collision is nearly unavoidable, the XC60 will start to brake automatically. The XC60 may not brake enough to avoid an accident but will significantly reduce the speed of impact.

Youtube Video of Collision Warning with Brake Support

City Safety


While the Collision Warning with Brake Support is designed for cars that are constantly moving, the “City Safety” feature is designed for city traffic where cars constantly stop and go. For example, the City Safety system can avoid or minimize collisions where the driver in front of you slams on the brakes. A laser based system located between the windshield and the rear view mirror detects cars in front and constantly calculates whether there is a risk or not.

Youtube Video of City Safe Feature

Lane Departure Warning (LDW)


A camera system attached to the inside of the windshield (next to the City Safety laser system) uses advanced vision processing techniques to recognize the lane markings and sides of the road. Deviation from the markings results in a warning to the driver. This system is particularly interesting because the OEM for this is a Netherlands/Israeli company called Mobileye (www.mobileye.com). In fact, Mobileye has been adopted by a number of manufacturers and appears in a number of vehicles including: GM’s Cadillac STS and Buick Lucerne Sedan and BMW’s 750i (among others).

Youtube Video of Lane Departure Warning System

Driver Alert Control (DAC)

Are you worried about falling asleep at the wheel? This system detects if you are sleepy and tells you to take a break if you are. The same camera in the LDW system detects where the road lanes are. Normally, awake people stay within the lanes fairly consistently while those who are sleepy drift more. The system picks up on the drift and alerts the driver accordingly.

Youtube Video of Driver Alert Control

Blind Spot Information System (BLIS)

This is exactly what is says. The system uses a camera on the side view mirror that alerts the driver to obstacles in his blind spots. Vehicles that enter the driver’s blind spots will cause the system to illuminate a LED next to the side view mirror. Supposedly works just as well at night as during the day.

Youtube Video of Blind Spot Information System

You won’t just see a commercial one day for the autonomous car.
But if you did, I could imagine how it would start off: “Come now to John Smith Ford. We got what you are looking for. Get the XLS AutoRover. $39,995. Buy it now and we’ll throw in a couple of free oil changes.”
No doubt autonomous cars will come, but you won’t suddenly hear it on TV. The evolution of the autonomous car can be broken down into four more or less chronological segments… each one building on the other: Continue reading →

I left Raleigh this morning at 8, changed plans at Reagan Airport in DC, and then arrived around noon in Detroit.  Not too bad considering the upper half of North America is seeing temperatures well below freezing. I arrived to find that Detroit airport’s “ground transportation” was little if nothing more than a glorified taxi stand.  No information on buses or any other public transportation.  Just a cold, windowed enclosure with rental-car shuttles and idling taxi cabs.  Previously on doing an internet search, I did find that there might be a public bus #125 that comes to the airport, but no signs in sight of a bus stop or the bus that comes once every hour and 10 minutes on Saturday.
Continue reading →