Virtual safety bubble erected around
future cars by smart sensor systems
will fend off accidents.
Image: Kenn Brown Mondolithic Studios
In Brief
- Smart safety systems on today’s high-end autos are taking ever greater control from drivers to avoid collisions or, at least, reduce injuries and fatalities. Within a few years, cars will steer clear of accidents without any driver input at all.
- So-called crashless cars will emerge because of customer expectations of safety, government pressure, crowded roads, an older, less capable population, and the adoption of lightweight vehicles with less crashworthy structures.
- Engineers have meanwhile demonstrated robotic vehicles. Together with the crashless car, this development means that the driverless car cannot be far off.
The empty highway stretches straight out to the horizon, so I take a moment to peek at the electronic display down in the car’s center console. I read out the numbers on the screen swiftly and glance back to the windshield, when I see ... nothing. A dense fog has swallowed the roadway, and I am driving blind. Before I can feel for the foot brake, an unmistakable warning—a brake-light red rectangle—flashes onto the windshield. Without another thought, I slam hard on the pedal, cursing loudly. My vehicle comes to a hasty halt as a disabled car emerges abruptly from the murk dead ahead.
Before I can even exhale, bright lights burn all around, and laughter rings out incongruously through the passenger cabin. I remember suddenly that I’m sitting inside the VIRTTEX (VIRtual Test Track EXperiment) driving simulator lab at Ford’s Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. The big, egg-shaped simulator dome enables specialists there to conduct driving tests under totally safe but highly convincing virtual-reality conditions. The disembodied mirth on the intercom is the control-room technicians having a chuckle over my brief discomfiture.
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9 Comments
Add CommentI have invented a way to make small cars much safer in collisions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease see my website www.safersmallcars.com
This article is stunning for its omission of a simple, practical technology that is available now and can be easily retrofitted to existing vehicles. This is intelligent speed assist (ISA) which uses GPS signals to determine location and vehicle speed. A built-in database then informs the driver if the current speed limit is being exceeded. Numerous trials have been conducted in Europe, Australia and Canada but not the USA. This month an Australian SatNav device was released that "knows" the speed limits for nearly all populated areas of Australia. The unit which has the usual maps and the SpeedAlert function costs less than US$200. My research in this field suggest that voluntary ISA will save 5% of serious road injuries. As a side benefit it will also reduce fuel consumption by 3%. It is time that compliance with speed limits got attention from ITS researchers in the USA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis system reminds me of the car in the movie Children of Men or like in the movie AI. Very cool.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn regards the stop and go following technology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would want to see coupled with a system to detect pedestriand or other cars trying to pass from the side through the gap in front of your car.
Many times I have seen pedestrians cross the street between cars that are in stop and go traffic.
Re: "Driving Toward Crashless Cars," Scientific American, December 2008
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA fellow college student and I discussed the driverless cars and auto "squadroning" of the future on our way to classes at UCLA in the mid-1960s -- as is Scientific American 43 years later. Meanwhile society has failed to utilize some of the auto safety technology described in "Driving Toward Crashless Cars" to make the flow of auto traffic much more fuel-efficient, an obvious pressing need in this era of carbon-loading of the atmosphere and consequent climate change, energy dependence, oil wars, inefficient vehicles, and long-declining middle-class incomes.
In particular, the infrared laser and microwave radar in speed-attenuating collision avoidance systems should be deployed immediately on all new cars, in an uncomplicated and economical form, to simultaneously slow down and space out cars and trucks on urban freeways, city thoroughfares, and interstate highways; both equipped and unequipped cars will comprise an overall slower traffic stream.
Networked-highway and GPS technology that computes and reads out on digital signage variable speed limits that slow vehicles ahead of freeway congestion is another fuel-saving as well as safety-enhancing innovation that could be deployed quickly. A geographically isolated place such as the Hawaiian island of Oahu would be an excellent location to install and perfect an "eco-driving" roadway infrastructure and vehicle fleet.
The GPS-enabled "intelligent speed assist" technology described in the comment above by 'mpainesyd' appears to be another fuel-stretching, carbon-reducing, safety-enhancing possibility. I've long thought that GPS could help with speed reduction, but I didn't know about this. I'll bet the fuel savings and carbon reductions would be 3% or greater.
I gave up driving two years ago, to reduce my carbon footprint and save money. As an intermittent car passenger I witness the leadfoot tendencies of many other drivers, and am constantly reminded that society could save several OPEC nations worth of petroleum and avoid many tons of carbon pollution by focusing on enabling the much more fuel-efficient driver of today instead of just seeking to replace the driver years in the future.
Gregory Wright
Sherman Oaks, California
greg@newciv.org
Oh, here comes the Mr. Minor Quibbler (me). Anti-lock brakes were actually introduced in 1972 on the front-wheel drive Cadillac Eldorado and Oldsmobile toronado twins. My 1974 Ford Thunderbird was equipped with a similar system.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe 1973 Olds Toronado also came with optional airbags, the first offered to the general public, believe it or not!
Nice cars
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.usedbikesmarket.com
Crash less Cars is looks very hard to believe and specially when there is increased traffic and driving become more and more hard. <a href="http://www.motorexpress.net/">Cars for cheap</a>
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust line the outside of all cars with Nerf! Ahh, but you'd probably get folks who like to play bumper cars on the freeway. Oh Well...
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