Nissans Shouldn’t Crash

Nissan - BR23C Robot Car

Thai Automaxx has an article up on the latest collison avoidance technologies at Nissan entitled “Nissan announces RB23C – Crash avoidance robotic car inspired by flight of the Bumblebee.” At CEATEC Japan 2008 Nissan unveiled the BR23C Robot Car, a robotic micro-car that mimics the instincts of a bumblebee to avoid accidents. It is set-up as the last line of defense in Nissan’s Safety Shield, and is designed to react in the blink of an eye. According to Toshiyuki Andou, Manager of Nissan’s Mobility Laboratory:

“The split second it detects an obstacle, the car robot will mimic the movements of a bee and instantly change direction by turning its wheels at right angles or greater to avoid a collision.

“The biggest difference to any current system is that the avoidance maneuver is totally instinctive. If that was not so, then the car robot would not be able to react fast enough to avoid obstacles.”

The article does not say when we might see this technology in production models, but hopefully the results of this project will create a safer car that can navigate past even the most seemingly unavoidable obstacles.

Bus Drivers Shouldn’t Drive

Your bus ride may soon be getting a lot smoother. According to the Wired.com article “Look Ma, No Hands! Automated Bus Steers Itself,” California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (California PATH) have developed a magnetic guidance system that will allow a bus to steer itself. Bus driver’s still control acceleration and braking.

Magnetic guidance technology uses magnetic markers embedded every 1.2 meters (4 feet) down the center of the lane and onboard sensors to track them. Alternating the polarity of the magnets creates a code that a computer aboard the bus reads to determine the buses’ latitudinal and longitudinal position. A bus doing 60 mph can process data from 88 feet of roadway in less than one second, and the system is robust enough to withstand real-world abuse, says Wei-Bin Zhang, who leads the project. “Today’s demonstration marks a significant step in taking the technology off the test track … towards deployment onto real city streets,” he says.

In addition to smoother rides, the magnetically guided bus can reliably stop much closer to curbs than human drivers, in some cases stopping only 1cm from the curb. The article does not state whether these buses will be hitting real bus routes anytime soon, however the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has taken a look at the project and determined it would cost significantly less than a new light rail system.

Nissans Shouldn’t Collide

From right-to-left, how the Side Collision Prevention system works.

Nissan has unveiled two new technologies to help drivers avoid collisions and details them in the “NISSAN PREVIEWS ALL-AROUND ‘COLLISION FREE’ PROTOTYPE” press release. The two new systems are Side Collision Prevention (SCP) and Back-up Collision Prevention (BCP) which incorporate the Distance Control Assist (DCA) and Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) systems when a driver attempts to change lanes or back out of a parking space. Both use sensors and drive-by-wire to prevent acccidents. Here’s a description of how the Back-up Collision Prevention will work:

During a reversing maneuver, rear and side-mounted sensors detect objects in the path of the vehicle. If an object is detected an alarm sounds followed by the activation of the brakes, to help avoid a collision in situations such as when a vehicle is backing out of a parking space.

The press release gives no information about when these technologies will be available or what cars will have them, but hopefully they will be helping make our roads safer soon.

Germans Shouldn’t Brake at Stop Lights

A dashboard display tells you how fast to drive to avoid a red light.

What if your car told you how fast to drive to avoid a red light? Even better, what if the traffic lights talked to the cars in order to better time their light changes. According to the KickingTires article “Audi Takes on Stop Lights: A Must Read”, Audi is partnering with the government of Ingolstadt, Germany to network the traffic signals together with specially-equipped cars in order to deliver optimum light switching and assist cars through traffic lights. The initiative is being pushed as a gas-saving measure, as less stopping means less gas used. The article doesn’t go too much into the technical details of the project, however it does have some pictures of the car dashboard.

GM puts lasers on windshield

A laser outlines the edge of the road.

Squinting to see the lines on the road during fog or rain may soon one day become a thing of the past. CNN.com reports in the article titled “Futuristic windshield aims to help older drivers” that GM is currently researching a windshield that will use lasers, infrared sensors, and a camera to point out road markings, edges of the road, and even obstacles in the vehicles path.

The researchers are mainly targeting this system toward older drivers who can not see the road as clearly, but it’s easy to see this technology being useful for all drivers. And who knows, maybe the technology that helps us more easily spot road edges could one day be used to help our future automated chauffeurs spot them as well.

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.

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.