Smart cars are safe cars
An enormous amount of research has focused on the persistent problem of car safety. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, driver drowsiness or fatigue causes 56,000 accidents a year, resulting in 40,000 nonfatal injuries and 1,550 deaths. But before digital technologies can make it on wheels, manufacturers and engineers must prove that technology can bring down accident rates.
Fortunately for them, smart cars tend to be safe cars. A host of technologies now contribute to what industry analysts call cocooning. The idea is to protect the people inside the car with smart air bags while filtering out distractions for drivers.
Sensor technologies are leading the way. Adaptive cruise control is already available overseas on high-end cars from BMW and Jaguar (recently acquired by Ford). Lexus and Mercedes-Benz plan to bring the technology to the United States in some of their 2001 models. Using radar (Mercedes-Benz) or lasers (Lexus), adaptive cruise control systems detect when a driver in front of you pulls into your lane. The systems automatically slow your car.
Sensors and radar also play key roles in collision-avoidance systems. Iteris's AutoVue Lane Departure Warning System uses a camera and computer to monitor lane markings while tracking them to your vehicle's speed. The computer then predicts when you're unintentionally drifting into another lane and emits a warning signal to the driver. Viseton has developed a crash-sensing system that deploys air bags faster and more reliably. Sensors detect both the extent and severity of an impact and inflate the bags accordingly.
Delphi Automotive Systems uses a smart air bag system based on silicon devices placed under the seat cushions. They determine the weight of the seat's occupant and deploy air bags with the minimum force necessary. Delphi already has a contract with Ford, which is using the system in Jaguars. Federal regulators have mandated that 35 percent of all passenger cars include occupant-sensing air bags by model year 2004 and that 100 percent include them by 2006.
Sensors are also being used to help drivers park cars more easily, through bumper-based sonar systems similar to the technology used to dock barges. As a vehicle approaches an object, a warning device beeps. The closer it gets, the faster the device beeps. BMW, Cadillac, Ford, Honda, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz will offer this technology, at least on some models, starting next fall. This past fall Cadillac introduced its thermal imaging system on its redesigned DeVille. The system lets you see up to five times farther on dark roads than low beams allow. Drivers can spot objects through fog and oncoming headlight glare. The system, developed by Raytheon, uses a sensor in the car's grille to detect infrared radiation.
At the Detroit Auto Show, Volvo demonstrated a technology that allows headlight beams to adapt to the road. When a driver turns the wheel, the headlight beam is directed toward the turn. An infrared light enhancer boosts nighttime vision beyond the headlights. Brake lights flash under extremely hard braking to alert drivers behind the car.
Look for tire safety to get a lot of attention this year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that improperly inflated tires cause 250,000 traffic accidents each year. Yet for years the technology has existed for tires to monitor their own pressure, pumping in air when necessary. Carmarkers resisted because of high costs. Last year Congress got snippy and revised some laws—no doubt propelled by the Firestone fiasco, in which tread separation was linked to more than 148 deaths in the United States. As a result, by 2003 all new cars must be outfitted with pressure-warning systems.
General Motors officials estimate that nearly one-third of the company's model year 2000 passenger vehicles already come outfitted with pressure monitors--either as standard equipment or as part of a package. Cycloid markets a system that could monitor tire troubles, then wirelessly transmit a dispatch to the Web and contact the driver.
Electronic brakes are coming to a car near you as well. In conventional brake lines, fluid isn't compressed until your toe touches the pedal. With electronic brakes, the fluid is always compressed. An electronic signal merely releases it to calipers. Continental AG, Bosch, and Delphi have all demonstrated brake-by-wire technology. As costs for the systems decline, other carmakers will adapt them as well. Mercedes-Benz plans to include it in its E-class sedans beginning in 2002. Mazda's Miata LS now comes with an electronic brake force-distribution technology, which varies the front-to-rear brake bias depending on the car's load.
Meanwhile, traction-control and stability-control systems continue to get smarter. Already, antilock brake systems are offered either as standard equipment or as an option on more than half the vehicles sold in the United States.
Stability-control systems are even more advanced. When they detect that a car's nose has plowed toward the outside of a curve, a condition called understeer, they instantly apply the brakes on the inside rear wheel. The car yaws back into the direction of the curve. With fishtailing, also called oversteer, the system gently applies brakes to the outside front wheel to restore neutral handling. Porsche and Corvette have some of the most advanced systems going, though traction-control and stability-control systems are available on a wide range of vehicles.
The BIG QUESTION about computers-in-cars is reliability in adverse conditions!
We had a bad flood recently in our part of Brisbane, and quess why late model
cars were most at risk? How water-proof is the engine-management-computer
installed in today's cars? Why isn't it always installed high-up under the dash
and throughly water-proofed?
With MORE computers coming to future cars - won't this problem get worse?
Seeing how world weather patterns are changing, and flooding is on the increase,
in my opinion amphibious cars are a major need!