Concerned People Shouldn’t Drive

According to the Wired.com article “People Love Hybrids Enough to Actually Pay for Them”, as gas prises rise people are becoming more willing to invest in hybrid cars, even if it will cost them an extra $5,000 over a solely gas-powered counterpart. Unfortunately, they are a lot less willing to pay extra for collision-mitigation systems. According to Mike Marshall, director of automotive emerging technology at J.D. Power:

“As soon as the vehicle starts doing something for you with respect to the driver,” Marshall says, “that’s when there’s a lot of concern among respondents.”

With plenty of driver-assisting technology currently being created by automakers, how can they best assure concerned drivers of the safety in handing over the reins to the car itself?

Cars Should Read Road Signs

Your car may soon be able to read road signs better than you can. The “Traffic Sign Recognition and Lane Departure Warning” developed by GM scans the road ahead of you at a speed of 30 frames per second and can not only read road signs but also tell when your car drifts away from the lane. Here’s a bit more technical info from the Wired.com article “All-Seeing Car Reads Road Signs For You”:

The system uses two processors and a camera — called, appropriately, the Front Camera System — mounted near the rear-view mirror. One processor identifies familiar shapes, symbols and digits on common road signs and conveys the information to the driver via a digital display in the gauge cluster. The other alerts the driver when he or she strays from the lane.

While the current system only presents information to the driver, it doesn’t seem to far-fetched to think this technology could be used to alert an autonomously-driven car to changing speed limits or upcoming curves.

Rich People Shouldn’t Drive

Now you too can own your own autonomous vehicle; if you have $89,000 to spend that is. engadget is reporting for that if you’ve got the cash you can purchase an autonomous Ford Escape Hybrid. This is the same type of vehicle that won 3rd place during the 2007 DARPA Grand Challenge. Anyone looking to let this car pick you up?

L.A. Commuters Shouldn’t Drive

If you have ever spent any time in Los Angeles, you know the biggest hurdle towards getting anything done is the traffic you have to deal with on the way. In the recent Los Angeles Times article “L.A.’s commuters can’t even go nowhere fast”, Christopher Goffard took a snapshot of the busy 110 Freeway and tried to talk to as many people stuck in traffic as they could. He also provides a nice summary of the LA Condition:

If you’re seeking the city’s ever-elusive center, it looks exactly like this. It’s anywhere the tires are stopped dead, a thousand deep. As a motorist in Southern California, your average rush-hour speed has plunged from 26 miles per hour in 1980 to about half that today. High gas prices have thinned traffic in some places recently, but the improvement is unlikely to last. In L.A. and Orange counties, by one conservative estimate, you’re now delayed by rush hours 72 hours a year, about double the time you were 25 years ago.

The article talks with several commuters, each describes the torturous commute they have to make each day as part of living in the most congested urban area in the United States. Unfortunately the article does not dive into possible solutions, preferring to comment on the carnage and move on by like an LA commuter rubber-necking at a traffic accident.

Old People Shouldn’t Drive

If you’ve ever been stuck on the freeway going 40mph in the right hand lane behind a blue-haired driver with their left blinker on, you’ve realized that older people can’t operate a car as well as others. According to a US Government Accountability Office study on Older Driver Safety:

Although the aging process affects people at different rates and in different ways, functional declines associated with aging can affect driving ability. For example, vision declines may reduce the ability to see other vehicles, traffic signals, signs, lane markings, and pedestrians; cognitive declines may reduce the ability to recognize traffic conditions, remember destinations, and make appropriate decisions in operating the vehicle; and physical declines may reduce the ability to perform movements required to control the vehicle.

Thankfully, help is on the way. Researchers at The AgeLab are building a souped-up Volvo XC90 with cameras and infrared sensors. Wired.com describes some of the benefits this “Aware Car” will provide:

The guys are AgeLab have outfitted the car with cameras and infrared sensors that observe a driver’s eyes and eyelid movements. Start nodding off? The car will tell you to pull over and get some rest. Sensors in the center console monitor heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. Blood-sugar dips? The car will tell you to get a bite to eat. Still more sensors keep tabs on the car’s speed and trajectory. A hard drive in the trunk collects and analyzes the data. The idea is to build a car that learns the drivers’ habits, then reacts appropriately when the driver alters them.

Unfortunately this technology will not be on the market for another 25 years, but be sure to read the full article entitled “‘Aware Car’ Knows When You’re Too Old to Drive — and Tells You” to discover why we’ll be needing this technology in 20 years, and why the government is particularly interested in this project.