The DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007 was a powerful – and pitiful – demonstration to what degree cars these days could be autonomous – Youtube has a whole collection of clips of crashing autonomous cars [1]. Yet the combination of road and vehicle systems will eventually lead to more safety and reduced energy consumption and emissions. To achieve this, the industry has to overcome several blocks, the two main ones being interoperability and end-user acceptance.
From the olden times of the VW Käfer [2] to todays multiple-type automotive networks [3] there has been made big progress on capability and throughput. However, today’s multiple standards stand in the way of innovation when it comes to networking the car with “the rest of the world”. While in aircraft and space vehicle design IP networking has become the standard of choice, even for safety critical systems [4, 5], suppliers in the automotive sector cling to their proprietary systems. Engineers still recount (and believe) rumours that IP networking would just not be able to cope with the requirements in automotive. Luckily, SUN (already in 1999!) [6] and later BMW [7, 8] have proven different some years ago.
Adopting IP networking would simplify both in-car and car-to-X networking. Eventually the various systems already available – traffic monitoring, driver assistance systems including location aware systems, telecommunication etc. – could be integrated. At the MIT, a system called AIDA (short for Affective Intelligent Driving Agent) is in development. “With the ubiquity of sensors and mobile computers, information about our surroundings is ever abundant. AIDA embodies a new effort to make sense of these great amounts of data, harnessing our personal electronic devices as tools for behavioral support,” comments professor Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Lab. “In developing AIDA we asked ourselves how we could design a system that would offer the same kind of guidance as an informed and friendly companion” [9]. The future will see more such systems that build on and integrate into existing infrastructures, rather than the proprietary systems promoted currently by some OEMs.
A crucial infrastructure certainly is telematics; and the in-car telematics market is set to grow [10]. It is yet unclear, if embedded systems (as favoured by Ford, Toyota, or PSA) will win the market, or if it will be mobile systems. While embedded systems have certain advantages in terms of (physical) coupling with the car, mobile systems promise much more versatility, integration into smart handheld devices – and last not least would be able to support intermodal passenger transportation. Embedded systems inherently discriminate against other modes of transport (be it embedded in private cars or in public transport vehicles).
It is equally interesting to study the current routes of development adopted by various players. Government initiatives (such as eCall) tend to be regarded by many ITS actors as the golden route, yet they have proven to be slow in development and uptake. Initiatives by OEMs (e.g. BMW’s ConnectedDrive / BMW Assist) tend to be available faster but remain all to often a privilege to the top-end of the market and so losing the benefit of ubiquity. Independent initiatives from SMEs have found niche markets, e.g. Swiss-made Carradar (by Headlight) [11] or Visirun.com (available in Italy, the UK and Germany).
On the European level, but relatively independent from governmental structures, euroFOT [12] has established itself as an important player for bringing intelligent vehicles to the road. Its large scale field tests of currently available technology for the first time reveals the real benefits of driver assistance technology [13]. Yet these field tests not always validate the claims of the ITS industry that driver assistance systems inherently make road traffic safer. A recent Dutch field test involving some 2400 lorries failed to identify significant increases of road safety when using various driver assistance systems. However, lorry drivers clearly indicated that they felt the systems actually helped their driving – if properly adjusted [14]. This in itself is certainly an important contribution to road safety.
Notes:
[1] Darpa Urban Challenge, car crashes on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=darpa+urban+challenge+crash
[2] Technikatlas. VW Käfer. http://www.technikatlas.de/~ta24/kaeferpage.htm
[3] Rajnak, Antal (2007). A System-Level View of Automotive Network Design. http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/HONSHI/20070926/139724/
[4] SAE AS6802 Using Ethernet for Embedded Systems in Aerospace, Defense, Ground Vehicle Applications. http://aero-defense.ihs.com/news/2009/sae-time-triggered-ethernet-110409.htm
[5] Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (Wikipedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFDX
[6] Heiss, Janice J. (1999) The Network Is the Car. http://java.sun.com/features/1999/06/concept_car.html
[7] BMW Group (2007). Internet Protocol – a world standard becomes automotive. https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/pressclub/p/pcgl/pressDetail.html?outputChannelId=6&id=T0012197EN&left_menu_item=node__2367
[8] Parkinson, Paul (2007). Drive by Ethernet? http://blogs.windriver.com/parkinson/2007/12/drive-by-ethern.html
[9] Campbell, MacGregor (2009). Robot driving companion brings emotion to navigation. New Scientist, 30 October 2009. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18085-robot-driving-companion-brings-emotion-to-navigation.html
[10] iSuppli (2009). Western European Car Telematics Market Booms. http://www.isuppli.com/News/Pages/Western-European-Car-Telematics-Market-Booms.aspx
[11] Carradar Feature. http://caradar.ch/lang1/ard.html
[12] euroFOT. http://www.eurofot-ip.eu/en/
[13] euroFOT (2009). Testing intelligent vehicles across European roads. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lREvNUVk2Ao
[14] Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat (2009). Anti-ongevalsystemen voor vrachtauto’s. http://www.verkeerenwaterstaat.nl/onderwerpen/verkeersveiligheid/050_veilig_vracht-_en_bestelverkeer/120_anti-ongevalsystemen_voor_vrachtautos/
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