Motor Authority - blog Tag: Collision

Driver-assist technology is developing more quickly than ever, and it's no longer the domain of extremely high-end executive sedans or one-off showpieces. As these driver aids trickle down to mainstream production cars, however, the spectre of automated cars and reduced driver responsibility begins to rear its head.

Set for arrival in 2009, Ford has developed a new radar-based active collision avoidance system that combines auditory warnings with assisted braking to help reduce the incidence and severity of accidents. By pre-charging the brake system and engaging an electronic brake assist system, Ford hopes the new Brake Support feature... Driver-assist technology is developing more quickly than ever, and it's no longer the domain of extremely high-end executive sedans or one-off showpieces. As these driver aids trickle down to mainstream production cars, however, the spectre of automated cars and reduced driver responsibility begins to rear its head. Set for arrival in 2009, Ford has developed a new radar-based active collision avoidance system that combines auditory warnings with assisted braking to help reduce the incidence and severity of accidents. By pre-charging the brake system and engaging an electronic brake assist system, Ford hopes the new Brake Support feature will help more drivers to avoid rear-end accidents. The Collision Warning portion of the system uses radar to detect moving vehicles and stationary objects ahead of the driver, and emits an alarm when the computer deems it appropriate. The collision warning system also projects a red warning light directly onto the windshield, above the instrument panel, to ensure the driver is aware of the situation without reducing visibility of or attention to the road. Ford is launching the new Collision Warning with Brake Support system across several vehicles in its lineup. Also featured as active safety devices will be the new for 2008 adaptive cruise control and Blind Spot Information System with Cross Traffic Alert, which will be new for 2009 alongside the new collision warning system. Also demonstrated recently was the Ford Smart Intersection, which allows cars and intersections to communicate key information. The package of features, taken together, is a multi-faceted attack on driver inattention. However, by providing substitutes for driver inattention, the result may be that drivers pay even less attention than they do now, lulled into a false sense of security by their technological aids. Ford is not alone in progressing down this road of enhanced safety, however: Nissan recently unveiled a prototype avoidance system based on the tactics of bees, and has previously pushed the envelope of intrusive driver aids with its implementation of the ECO Pedal.Ford's Advanced Collision Avoidance Technologies Read More

Bees are not the first animal most people would think of when looking to the biological world for automotive inspiration, but the engineers at Nissan are uncommon people. Those engineers are developing a collision avoidance system based around the same principles that bees use to navigate their complex environments safely.

Compound eyes are unsettling to look into, but looking out of them gives bees the ability to see nearly 300 degrees around their perimeter. Scanning such a wide area for obstacles would at first seem difficult, but the nature of the compound eye - which divides the bee's sight into numerous tiny segments, and then... Bees are not the first animal most people would think of when looking to the biological world for automotive inspiration, but the engineers at Nissan are uncommon people. Those engineers are developing a collision avoidance system based around the same principles that bees use to navigate their complex environments safely. Compound eyes are unsettling to look into, but looking out of them gives bees the ability to see nearly 300 degrees around their perimeter. Scanning such a wide area for obstacles would at first seem difficult, but the nature of the compound eye - which divides the bee's sight into numerous tiny segments, and then composites them back together - makes location detection part of the job of seeing, lightening the load on the bee's tiny brain. Likewise, the Nissan system, which replaces compound eyes with a laser scanning system, incorporates location detection directly into the process of 'seeing' the world around the car. This means the system doesn't require intricate CPUs, and instead operates on simple microprocessors. "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," said Toshiyuki Andou, manager of Nissan's Mobility Laboratory. "It must react instinctively and instantly because this technology corresponds to the most vulnerable and inner-most layer of our Safety Shield, a layer in which a crash is currently considered unavoidable," he added. "The whole process must mirror what a bee does to avoid other bees. It must happen within the blink of an eye." The concept technology is already being tested in a robotic microcar known as BR23C. This very un-car-like car more closely resembles a stylized humanoid, but features the adapted collision avoidance system as its primary function. Like a car, which can only react to its environment in the two-dimensional world of pavement, the BR23C detects anything within a two-meter (6.6ft) sphere of 'personal space' and employs an algorithm that can slow, accelerate, or rotate to avoid a collision. So far the bio-mimetic technology is only at the concept stage, but the team behind the project has hopes that it could see real-world use to reduce or even prevent future crashes.Nissan Collision Avoidance Concept BR23C Read More