Samrt cars: A summary of current ideas

[madd0ct0r]

http://www.its.dot.gov/factsheets/pdf/CV_Safety.pdf

V2I Applications
• Curve Speed Warning: Alerts drivers approaching a curve to slow down if their
vehicle speed is too high to travel safely through the curve.
• Oversize Vehicle Warning: Alerts drivers if their vehicle cannot clear a bridge
or tunnel.
• Pedestrian in Signalized Crosswalk Warning: Warns transit bus operators
when pedestrians walking within the crosswalk of a signalized intersection are in
the intended path of the bus.
• Railroad Crossing Warning: Alerts drivers approaching an at-grade
railroad crossing if they are on a crash-imminent trajectory with a crossing or
approaching train.
• Red Light Violation Warning: Broadcasts signal phase and timing (SPaT) and
other data to the in-vehicle device, allowing warnings to drivers of impending
red light violations.
• Reduced Speed/Work Zone Warning: Broadcasts alerts to drivers to reduce
speed, change lanes, or come to a stop within reduced speed/work zones.
• Restricted Lane Warning: Provides drivers with restriction information about
the travel lanes (e.g., high occupancy vehicles, transit only, or public safety
vehicles only).
• Smart Roadside - Wireless Inspection: Utilizes roadside sensors to provide
identification, hours-of-service, and sensor data directly from trucks to carriers
and government agencies.
Smart Roadside - Smart Truck: Provides information
such as hours-of-service constraints, location and supply
of parking, travel conditions, and loading/unloading
scheduling to allow commercial drivers to make advanced
route planning decisions.
• Spot Weather Impact Warning: Warns drivers of local
hazardous weather conditions by relaying weather data
from the management center and other sources to roadside
equipment, which then re-broadcasts to nearby vehicles.
• Stop Sign Gap Assist Warning: Uses traffic information
broadcast from roadside equipment to warn drivers of
potential collisions at stop-sign intersections.
• Stop Sign Violation Warning: Provides warnings to drivers
approaching an unsignalized intersection when their speed
and distance to the stop sign is such that they may not
perform the required stop.
• Warnings about Hazards in a Work Zone: Provides
warnings to maintenance personnel within a work zone
about potential hazards within the work zone (e.g., a vehice
traveling at a high speed or entering the work zone).
• Warnings about Upcoming Work Zone: Provides
approaching vehicles with information about work zone
activities, such as travel lane obstructions, lane closures,
lane shifts, speed reductions, or vehicles entering/exiting
the work zone.


V2V Applications
• Blind Spot/Lane Change Warning: Warns drivers
attempting a lane change if there is a vehicle in their
blind spot.
• Control Loss Warning: Enables a vehicle to broadcast a
self-generated, control-loss event to surrounding vehicles.
• Do Not Pass Warning: Alerts drivers prior to a passing
maneuver if there is a potential for a head-on collision.
• Emergency Electronic Brake Lights: Alerts downstream
drivers to hard braking ahead, providing them additional
reaction time.
• Emergency Vehicle Alert: Alerts surrounding drivers
about the location and movement of public safety vehicles
responding to an incident in the vicinity.
• Forward Collision Warning: Alerts drivers if there is a
direct and imminent threat of collision ahead of the host
vehicle. The application helps drivers avoid or mitigate the
severity of rear-end crashes with the upstream vehicle.
• Intersection Movement Assist: Warns drivers when it is
not safe to enter an intersection due to a high probability of
collision with other vehicles.
• Left Turn Assist: Alerts drivers attempting an unprotected
left turn across traffic when there is a high probability of a
collision with traffic from the opposite direction.
• Pre-Crash Actions: Enables a vehicle to mitigate injuries
in a crash by activating in-vehicle countermeasures when a
crash is about to happen.
• Situational Awareness: Determines whether the road
conditions measured by other vehicles represent a potential
safety hazard for the vehicle containing the application.
• Tailgating Advisory: Uses information from other vehicles
to determine whether the vehicle is too close to the vehicle
in front of it.
• Transit Vehicle at Station/Stop Warning: Informs nearby
vehicles of the presence of a transit vehicle at a station or
stop. The application also indicates the intention of the
transit vehicle to pull into or out of a station/stop.
• Vehicle Emergency Response: Provides public safety
vehicles with information from connected vehicles involved
in a crash (e.g., HAZMAT data, air bag deployment, type of
vehicle power systems).
• Vehicle Turning Right in Front of Transit Vehicle
Warning: Warns transit bus operators of the presence of
vehicles attempting to go around the bus as it leaves a stop.


V2P Application
• Transit Pedestrian Indication: Informs pedestrians at a
station or stop of the presence of a transit vehicle. It also
informs the transit vehicle operator of the presence of
pedestrians nearby

[aawelj]

Generally speaking, if it increases safety then I'm for it. On the other hand, if the driver has to deal with a large number of warnings I imagine there is a danger that they will become less responsive to the warnings in general. Where the line between too many and not enough warnings will be a goldmine for the laywers, I expect

The best thing to do, it seems to me, is remove the driver fro the equation and go straight to self-driving cars.

[His Divine Shadow]

Yes please, that way I could read a book or sleep during my 20min commute. And no more fucking pensioners and other people I assume must be legally bllind, doing 60-70 on a 100kph road.

[Purple]

Or better yet just have no warnings at all and have the car email the police with every single violation. Combined with an automatic ticketing service and you'll find that the motorcar will go out of fashion real fast.

[His Divine Shadow]

That sounds real dumb to me.

[madd0ct0r]

Or better yet just have no warnings at all and have the car email the police with every single violation. Combined with an automatic ticketing service and you'll find that the motorcar will go out of fashion real fast.

funnily enough one of the senior senior engineers at my company described the above as 'manufacturers adding to tech despertly to ensure the car stays relevent"

[His Divine Shadow]

What? The only thing that'd make the car no longer relevant is trying to legislate it out of existence on purpose. If people get to choose they want cars, and more than one preferably. Is this guy someone so huddled into his own reality in some major metropolitan area that doesn't know the earth doesn't stop outside the city limits?

[salm]

Maybe he meant new cars. If you don´t want new tech in your car you can just as well drive your until it falls appart after 15 years and 300 000 km. Personally I do that but a lot of people want a new car and i assume a large reason is to have new tech in their car.

[His Divine Shadow]

OK I buy that, I have more than 300k on my car now (diesel yaris) and I think it'd do 300k more still. Still it'll need to go soon for something slightly larger due to the kids growing, and preferably something that can take a trailer.

[madd0ct0r]

it was in relation to this article: http://www.cnet.com/news/funded-why-a-g ... rking-app/

BMW has been making cars for about 87 years. Now, it's getting into the business of parking.

The German carmaker's investment arm, BMW iVentures, said Wednesday that it has backed Zirx, an 18-month-old parking service. Zirx's mobile phone app allows drivers to hail a valet who will pick up their cars curbside, saving them from circling the block in vain for a spot that may not exist.

"The way people are using cars is changing," said Ulrich Quay, managing director of BMW iVentures. "We'd be dumb if we didn't react to that."

BMW and other global automakers are investing in car-related services, including navigation apps and alternative fuels, that they hope will make owning a car more attractive. The wave of investments comes amid concern that ride-hailing apps like Uber may someday end car ownership as we know it.

In addition to BMW, rivals General Motors, Ford and Honda are among the carmakers with dedicated venture capital arms. Their spending is growing.

Already this year, the venture arms of global automakers have invested $767 million in startups, according to venture research firm PitchBook. That's almost six times the amount they spent last year.

Carmakers are reportedly outbidding Silicon Valley buyers for technology that could change driving. BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen's Audi spent $3.1 billion last month to buy Nokia's Here, a digital mapping service and tool for self-driving cars.

"When cars are economically unviable, no one will have cars," said Kurt Buecheler, an executive at parking startup Streetline and the chair of the National Parking Association's technology board.

Automakers are taking a page from one of their biggest threats: ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft that give city dwellers a reason not to own cars. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has even said that ending car ownership is one of his goals.

In 2011, GM began backing RelayRides, a service that allows people to rent other people's cars. The peer-to-peer rental service has raised $48 million from investors. In June, Ford's investment arm partnered with two car-sharing startups, Getaround in the US and EasyCarClub in the UK. Daimler and Volkswagen have also backed car-sharing startups.

Car companies are hoping their investments will help keep a lid on the costs of filling a tank, the single biggest reason that 18- to 29-year-olds in America don't own cars, according to consultancy Deloitte.

As a result, automakers are funding alternative energy startups. Honda has invested in biofuel maker Virent. Toyota and BMW have both funded ChargePoint, which operates nearly 24,000 electric vehicle fueling stations. This summer, GM backed electric battery company Proterra.

Zirx, the parking startup recently backed by BMW, sends valets at the touch of a button to pick up cars curbside. The company's network has more than 500 valets spread across Los Angeles, New York and four other major American metro areas. The valets will park a car and return it washed and filled with gas at the driver's request.

BMW has also backed another parking company, JustPark, which lets drivers reserve spaces in garages.


"We don't talk about ourselves as just a car company anymore," said BMW's Quay. "We talk about ourselves as a leader in mobility services."

[Purple]

Basically in order to sell your new models you have to convince people that 1) they are better than your old models and 2) they are better than your competitors new and old models. After all, you are not just fighting against new cars but the entire used vehicle market. So any gadget you can add to entice the modern apple using tablet wearing sitting in a cafe texting his date consumer is a good investment.

[Broomstick]

Maybe he meant new cars. If you don´t want new tech in your car you can just as well drive your until it falls appart after 15 years and 300 000 km. Personally I do that but a lot of people want a new car and i assume a large reason is to have new tech in their car.

Actually, if you take care of things they'll last even longer - I fully expect to get 20 years out of my pick-up (16 as of this year) for example.

Adding the tech also ups the price and profits. I really only need a basic car, I don't want to pay for a lot of tech shit I will likely never use. Frankly, a lot of those problems could be fixed by demanding actual competence from drivers and not allowing distracted driving. I mean, I've managed to drive for 35 years without needing a computer to warn me to slow down for curves or not hit things.

[salm]

Maybe he meant new cars. If you don´t want new tech in your car you can just as well drive your until it falls appart after 15 years and 300 000 km. Personally I do that but a lot of people want a new car and i assume a large reason is to have new tech in their car.

Actually, if you take care of things they'll last even longer - I fully expect to get 20 years out of my pick-up (16 as of this year) for example.

Adding the tech also ups the price and profits. I really only need a basic car, I don't want to pay for a lot of tech shit I will likely never use. Frankly, a lot of those problems could be fixed by demanding actual competence from drivers and not allowing distracted driving. I mean, I've managed to drive for 35 years without needing a computer to warn me to slow down for curves or not hit things.

Sure. It depends on how long it is economically reasonable to keep it.
A lot of tech in cars is useless crap. Or even negative add on. I was happy to find a car witout an AC for example because that only adds to stuff that can break and wastes gasoline.
On the other hand there is some useful tech, like belts or ABS, or more relevant to this thread the ability to drive by itself.
As for the warning systems. These have to be implemented carefully because they have the ability to annoy the hell out of drivers. Like speed warnings in cheap navigation systems with annoying voices and things like that.

[Broomstick]

Oddly enough, I find AC mandatory but ABS optional - then again, when I learned to drive ABS wasn't even an option. During the winter I have to remember which of my two vehicles has ABS and which doesn't, and brake accordingly. GPS is nice, but not nice enough that I'm willing to pay for it - then again, my navigational skills are significantly above average. My dad, who I love dearly but could get lost in his own house even while sober, really did find GPS tremendously useful (as the only sibling without a GPS my household inherited his recently). One of my sisters has really come to like the rear-view camera on her car, and I can certainly see the utility of it in some situations.

So, I find all these options a positive on the whole, but what's actually useful will vary from person to person.

Although I find driving a useful skill if we had truly reliable self-driving cars I'd opt for one. Assuming I could afford it at all.

[Elheru Aran]

AC can be a regional thing. In much of the US, for example, it definitely gets warm enough over a long enough period of the year that you really don't much want to do without it in your car, especially considering most people commute a decent distance to work. Doesn't look good to show up all sweaty. On the other hand, European commutes are probably on the shorter side (I'm assuming here) and the weather is milder (usually) than the US.

I think car GPS is going to get phased out eventually by smartphones; my phone's navigation system courtesy of Google Maps is better than my dad's GPS, the only downside is the power it sucks out of the phone, so you have to plug it in. Of course there's another downside I suppose, you can't use the phone for other things while driving-- but come on, you *shouldn't* be. Google Maps' navigation system is free, too. No monthly subscription to a GPS service (though really that could be argued to be useless given how rarely roads change in a major manner).

ABS has been around for long enough in the US auto market that it's actually difficult to find a car less than 10, 20 years old *without* it. Ditto power windows, those are pretty common, though you can still find extremely basic models without-- my 2006 Cobalt is bottom-line basic, no power windows... but it does have a CD player, AC, and ABS.

[His Divine Shadow]

No way in hell, I will never have a car without AC. It's a godsend in the finnish summer even.

[Broomstick]

Age of the driver is a factor, too - the older a person gets the less tolerant they are of temperature extremes.

[Tsyroc]

Maybe he meant new cars. If you don´t want new tech in your car you can just as well drive your until it falls appart after 15 years and 300 000 km. Personally I do that but a lot of people want a new car and i assume a large reason is to have new tech in their car.

That's kind of what I am doing. Not that I don't like any of the newer cars. I just don't want to pay what a new car costs and have to accept all the built in bells and whistles that are bound to start being a problem as they start failing or having glitches.

My truck is 26 years old and there are some drawbacks to having it that long. Some replacement parts are rather expensive. It has a carburetor and finding a mechanic who can properly work on one, let along diagnose problems with one took a little bit of time to find. The good thing is that most everything on the truck is pretty simple. There are no computer bits at all. It also has a manual transmission and no power steering.

Being that old also makes yearly emissions testing interesting since it actually has to go through the testing because it doesn't have a computer to download data from. This last year the person I had running the test had to ask someone else to confirm that the engine was correct and untampered with because she was uncertain about carbureted engines.

It's funny, but last month I was doing searches for simple vehicles and found an article along the lines of "best newer vehicles for luddites". Which isn't necessarily me. I just want something that isn't going to have even more things that can fail on it, especially if they are gadgets I have no need or desire for. I don't buy vehicles with the idea of how well it is going to hold it's value for resale. I buy it to get from point A to point B with as much usefulness and as reliably as possible. I do prefer to drive the vehicle myself, but I can't say that I wouldn't like a self driving vehicle for long road trips.

[Tsyroc]

No way in hell, I will never have a car without AC. It's a godsend in the finnish summer even.

I live in Arizona and don't have working AC in my truck. Granted, I mostly drive at night or morning and some of my reasoning for not getting it fixed is because when it did work I would blast myself with it on the way to work and then I would immediately start perspiring like crazy once I was in the hospital.

It is feasible to drive around during the day with nothing but the fan and the windows down but I don't do it very often. There is something to be said for "it's a dry heat" as long as you can stay out of direct sunlight and have decent airflow.

[Tsyroc]

Age of the driver is a factor, too - the older a person gets the less tolerant they are of temperature extremes.

That is one thing I do like about newer vehicles. The climate control can be set at specific temperatures and then the car does the rest. Much better than having to constantly fiddle with the fan speed, heating/cooling dial, and vent positioning.