Today's safety measures herald tomorrow's robotic cars
In the field of driverless cars, all eyes are on Google. But the major car manufacturers are also making progress in the direction of autonomous driving. And even though the means they are developing for "advanced safety" and "driver assistance" seem negligible compared to Google's driverless car, many of them are actually feasibility tests for technologies that may one day control driverless cars. At the same time, the US Highway Traffic Safety Administration (nhtsa), an arm of the US Department of Transportation, is examining the readiness of the roads for these control systems and automatic vision sensors. In the short term, while consumers eagerly await the first robotic cars, introducing these automation measures as standard in existing cars will save lives.
Autonomous driving is entering the standard
Front collision prevention
In January 2015, NHTSA announced that it was going to include anti-collision braking systems in the car safety measures it publishes. The systems make use of front sensors, which are based on radar, a camera or a laser, to detect in advance collisions that are about to occur. The systems will apply the brakes, or increase the pressure the driver puts on them, to compensate for slow or poor driver reactions. Honda is the first manufacturer to integrate such a system in its cars in 2003. Since then, almost all car manufacturers have put similar measures on the market in all their intermediate models and all their expensive models. Mercedes-Benz intends to test the capabilities of autonomous driving in its luxury research car F 015 Luxury in Motion.
Backup cameras
Every car sold in the US after May 1, 2018 must be equipped with a backup camera, according to the safety regulations issued by the NHTSA in 2014. The rear-facing cameras, currently installed in dozens of models, give drivers a full rear field of vision and help them identify obstacles in "dead" zones. nhtsa estimates that improving visibility in this way may save about 70 lives each year in the US.
Communication between cars
When driverless cars will travel en masse on the roads, each will have to know the location, speed and route of the cars in front of them. In the summer of 2014, the NHTSA announced that it was going to examine setting a standard for such communication between vehicles. Such communication will also improve the coordination between human-driven cars in accident-prone sections of the road, such as, for example, left turns.
Route identification
In 2013, the nhtsa established a method for examining the effectiveness of cameras that follow the lane markings painted on the roads and warn of deviation. Some cars, such as the Toyota Prius, for example, already today take over the steering wheel if the driver does not react quickly enough to the warning signs. Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen go a step further in their new 2015 models and integrate cameras and sensors to monitor the environment to take control of driving and prevent an accident: turn the steering wheel, cross a lane and deviate from it if necessary.
The article was published with the permission of Scientific American Israel
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Life
Don't laugh... a week ago I saw a car driving in the city without a single person in the car. drove slowly but drove. Pretty weird 🙂
Miracles
What are the chances that when needed the autonomous car will blow my nose?
Miracles
On a humorous note, I will add that the autonomous car knows how to both wash itself and change a tire for itself. When you bump into her she says "oh it hurts".
Ori
It is good for tight parking, because the movements of the steering wheel are fast and strong. It's good for those less experienced in parking, but it's quite a gimmick for an experienced driver.
Lane keeping and distance are very useful in that they reduce stress and obviously improve safety.
Yes miracles, I saw some demos of it on YouTube, it's really amazing.
Do you usually use it or park yourself?
Ori
The system today controls the steering wheel. You need to shift into reverse gear, and release the steering wheel. The system knows how to park parallel or perpendicular, like in a mall parking lot. There are movies that show it on YouTube.
No need to exaggerate. One of the reasons for accidents is the fact that everyday driving under normal road conditions requires so little concentration and mental processing from you, so people tend to constantly wander off to other thoughts and pursuits when they are driving. To some extent, challenging driving that requires more concentration is safer than everyday driving.
Wow amazing, as far as I'm concerned she passed the Turing test.
The big nightmare is when in a few years there will be these on the roads and you won't be there, you will have to crawl after them looking for parking in the middle of Tel Aviv and you won't even be able to get mad at the driver.
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1AVSW_enIL374IL375&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=self+parking+cars&tbm=vid
Nissim What does "self-parking" mean, if there is one parking space between two cars (when they park along the sidewalk, i.e. parallel to it) the system knows by itself (without you touching anything) to park the car between them?
If so that's amazing.
rival
The system keeps a distance from the vehicle in front, and even brakes if someone in front of you brakes. It also maintains a lane, according to the painted stripes, and turns the steering wheel to avoid deviating from the lane. The system is part of the car and works great. It has other patents, such as warning of a vehicle in the dead zone, and self-parking.
"lane guard"
Even on a road that doesn't have clear markings on it?
Nissim, you're talking about a system that keeps a safe distance from vehicles driving next to you, that's something else and not related to my comment about the markings on the road.
By the way, I heard from people who installed this system that it is very sensitive and has too many false alarms, so it's just annoying... I'll wait for the automatic cars 🙂
rival
My car has such a system - saves lane and distance. Surprising how good this system is! Works in the dark, rain and snow. Of course road markings are needed, but it seems to me that the idea definitely contributes to safety and driving comfort.
"Cameras that follow the route markings painted on the roads"
Unfortunately there are so many roads where the markings on the road are erased or almost invisible, what's more, in conditions of fog or heavy rain even if there are signs they cannot be seen.
You can't rely on markings on the road, you need something a little more reliable than that.