Friday, February 5, 2016
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A brave new world of motoring is dawning closer to full-autonomy. At the Los Angeles auto show the Sure, there are all sorts of regucentrepiece of the Volvo display was latory, legal and insurance issues its Concept 26 interior for an autonto be resolved in order to allow omous vehicle. driverless operation of a vehicle. In autopilot mode, this cockpit can There are also road infrastructure transform into a mobile office, or the issues that need to be addressed, driver can watch a movie or simply including, and probably most imrecline and relax. Hey, you might The driverless portantly, expanded and consistent even look forward to that boring or self-driving car is high-bandwidth coverage. On the repetitive commute to work. rapidly moving from plus side, however, autonomous The driverless or self-driving car is rapidly moving from concept to re- concept to reality and vehicles are expected to reduce perhaps eventually eliminate ality and fully autonomous cars will fully autonomous cars and vehicle collisions and ease traffic likely arrive sooner than you think. will likely arrive sooner congestion. In fact, many currently available Volvo logically (it’s a Swedish trait) new vehicles already have limited than you think. figure that autonomous driving autonomous driving capability. A Bob McHugh will initially be introduced on 2016 Acura MDX I drove recently dedicated motorways. Its focus is is a good example, as now comes on the long-haul trip and the daily commute to standard with the award winning AcuraWatch work, which it calculates as taking 26 minutes package. (on average) - hence the Concept 26 name. A grouping of high-tech systems, AcuraWatch A fleet of Volvo vehicles with an autonomous can prevent the new MDX from straying out of a driving mode will be put in the hands of real traffic lane, getting too close to a vehicle ahead customers in Gothenburg, Sweden next year. A and it will brake automatically to avoid an imdriver will be able to switch into the autonomous pact with another vehicle, or a pedestrian. While mode for a predetermined period (depending it could effectively drive itself on a freeway, a on distance and traffic flow) between motorway warning alert sounded if I dared take both hands exits. off the steering wheel for a few seconds. BMW, on the other hand, is heavily involved in Later this year, Cadillac will introduce Super developing a self-parking vehicle technology, Cruise Control, in it’s new 2017 CT6 and CTS using a BMW i3. Remote Valet Parking Assismodels. In addition to other advances, this systance includes a unique 360-degree collision tem will allow a driver to take both hands off the avoidance protection system that uses four steering wheel at highway speeds. Another step
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advanced laser scanners. Using a smart phone or watch a driver can instruct the vehicle to go park itself in a multi-level parking lot. The driverless car then takes off on its own, autonomously self-steering through the building, seeking an empty stall to park, shutdown and lock itself. Robo Bimmer can also be started remotely and summoned to pick up its driver at the same entry/exit location. Every major auto maker is stepping up work on autonomous vehicle technology. Toyota, GM and Mercedes-Benz are all heavily invested in autonomous vehicle development and expected to bring products to market. Ford recently announced that it’s tripling the size of its autonomous vehicle development fleet and accelerating on-road testing, which starts in California later this year. Its demo vehicle is a Fusion Hybrid sedan with puck-power, a new Solid-State Hybrid-Ultra Puck Auto sensor. About the same size and shape as a hockey puck, this puck can map and create real-time 3D models of its surrounding environment. Autonomous vehicle development also transcends traditional auto production sources. Google, the internet search engine and browser behemoth, surprised everybody back in 2010, when its autonomous vehicle development work was revealed. It’s now working with a number of traditional automakers and is expected to have a fully autonomous vehicle ready for market by 2020. Other Silicon Valley giants getting on autonomous vehicle action include Tesla and Uber. Yes, of course, they’re working on a Robo-Taxi. Not sure
what they have planned for the in-trip friendly customer conversation but it should be interesting. Please note, “automated” is arguable a more accurate but less widely used descriptive term than “autonomous” for the new generation of self-driving vehicles. Early self-driving vehicle experiments were done with vehicles that generally relied on a magnetic strip embedded in the road and were typically called automated vehicles. A brave new world of motoring is almost upon us. bob.mchugh@drivewaybc.ca
Safety Tip: If you’re taking a road trip over the long weekend, be sure to visit drivebc.ca to check road and weather conditions beforehand as they can be unpredictable in the winter. WATCH FOR Make sure your vehicle NASTY is properly equipped and WEATHER adjust your speed to the conditions you encounter.
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