Smarter Cars: 9 Tech Trends
Can your car wake you up if you get sleepy behind the wheel? Or recommend a good Mexican restaurant? These nine technologies will soon change the way we think about cars.
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The convergence of two technological trends -- the Internet of Things and the quest for the self-driving car -- is changing the way cars are being made. New sensor technologies are driving a revolution in the way we interact with our beloved cars, how safe they are, and even how fuel efficient they can be. Pretty soon, it will be hard to tell who is smarter -- the car or the driver.
That's probably OK with most drivers. People seem to love their cars like family. This survey shows that over half of British drivers name their car. The most popular name for a car in Britain? Betty. IWeek's own Susan Nunziata named her car Mabel. The funny thing is that as cars become more automated and more connected to our lives, we're only going to get closer to them. The next time a Mabel or a Betty swerves to avoid oncoming traffic, she's going to seem more like a friend than ever.
Cars are also going to get more social and even take on a personality as they become more connected to our lives. The first time Harrison (a common name for Fords) reminds his driver to pick up an anniversary gift, you can bet he's going to get rewarded with a nice wash and wax.
All of this is predicated on an increasing interconnectedness between cars, drivers, and the world around them. Your car is going to be packed with an increasing number of cameras, sensors, and networking gear that will allow it to not only see and measure the world around it, but to tap into what other cars and nearby objects are seeing. Imagine your car knowing that a child has run into the street right around the corner, because another car saw the child first.
So not only are Betty and Harrison going to talk to you, but they're also going to be talking to Mabel. All of this is going to lead to changes in the way we drive. Click on to see nine technologies that are going to make your current car look like a Model T.
If you have shopped for a brand new car in the last few years, especially a luxury car, you've started to see this trend in action. Parking assist and backup cameras are yesterday's news. Increasingly, we're seeing cars with lane control, active cruise control, tailgating warnings, braking assist, and collision prevention technology. They all rely on a series of external sensors (usually a combination of radar and visual sensors) to determine how close an object is. The sensors usually give an audio cue followed by automated intervention. Braking assist (pictured) is one of the best examples as it really makes simple use of technology to prevent the most common of collisions. A newer application of this technology is active cruise control, which decelerates slightly for you when you are approaching a slower car. While none of this technology can prevent sudden violent movements that sometimes cause accidents, they can prevent minor careless mistakes from turning into bigger tragedies. One technology coming down the pike is 3D imaging using lasers that will make all of these technologies even more accurate and useful.
Of course, technology that can help you avoid a crash is great -- but sometimes you crash anyway. Typical airbags in cars have been on the inside, to protect passengers. But what if you put them on the outside, like in the picture above showing how a spacecraft would land on Mars? External air bags would not only help keep passengers safe, but the car would take less damage. Volvo (among other manufacturers) is working on airbags that come out from under the car and from seams in doors and windows. The first goal is to protect pedestrians and cyclists, with the ultimate goal of protecting all people as well as the car itself. Obviously, one problem is to make this happen, you'd have to know you were going to hit something. Unlike internal airbags, which can deploy the split second after impact, external airbags must deploy before a collision, which creates some intriguing challenges -- for example, avoiding deployment in near-miss situations or deploying at too slowly. But if the sensors can be correctly calibrated, external air bags could save lives.
Volvo is also experimenting with sensors inside the cockpit of the car to measure the sleepiness and attentiveness of the driver. The sensors measure how wide open the driver's eyes are and whether the driver is looking at the road. They will also give a warning to distracted drivers who take their eyes off the road. A company called Harken is tackling the same problem from a different point of view: seat belts made with smart fabric technology that monitor your heart rate and breathing for signs that you are about to fall asleep.
We all know not to leave babies and pets in the car, especially on hot days, yet according to some estimates, 38 children and thousands of pets die in the US each year from being trapped in hot cars. Unfortunately, car companies aren't working on a solution to this problem, but 17-year-old high school student Alissa Chavez has been doing so since her 8th grade science fair. Similar to a passenger seat air bag sensor, her device, called the Hot Seat, is a pressure-sensor pad that fits under the cover of a child's car seat. If it senses that a child is in the seat, an alarm will sound if the driver moves more than 40 feet away from the car. While the Hot Seat would clearly not protect pets left loose in a car, perhaps sensors could be mounted inside a car to detect motion and temperature. Carmakers, are you listening?
BMW began experimenting with facial recognition in 2008. Toyota introduced a concept car in 2012 that used facial recognition to recognize the driver; it even said "hello" when the driver approached. Since then, many manufacturers have continued the experiment for security and social reasons. If we call our cars Mabel and Betty, why shouldn't our cars call us by name, too? As facial recognition is gets increasingly sophisticated, it could also help prevent theft: A car that will start only for selected faces could thwart the average car thief. This is a big deal, since more than 650,000 cars were stolen in the US in 2013 alone.
Traffic lights are a bane to fuel efficiency: The quick acceleration after a light turns green (or yellow) and idling during red wastes precious fuel. Some cars now have automatic shutoff and re-ignition at red lights, but manufacturers can do more. Audi, for example, is piloting a program that allows cars to tap into the signals sent from city traffic lights in order to anticipate changing traffic lights. This would allow a car to gently slow down or accelerate to better sync with the lights. Auto-shutdown and re-ignition would also be more efficient if the car knows exactly when a light is turning green and when to re-start the engine. According to one estimate, 25% of the fuel a car burns happens during idling. If that's true, this technology could cut 25% (or more if you account for aggressive acceleration) from your gas bill, and decrease emissions as well.
All these sensors can certainly help make your car safer and more efficient, but what if they could access information from millions of cars on the road at once? This is where the Internet of Everything merges with the car. Want real-time traffic updates? No problem -- your car will reach out to all the others in the area and ask how things are going. Want to pack more cars into the same stretch of asphalt so traffic goes faster? Easy -- when cars talk to each other they can drive closer together safely. A convoy of trucks could do the same to save fuel.
Accident prevention, however, could be the big win. Connected cars, as mentioned previously, could easily avoid accidents happening around blind corners. Imagine the big data opportunities for government as well: No need to look for potholes or wait for complaints. Every time a car hits an obstruction or a road hazard, it can send a report to the appropriate agency. Information from shocks and suspension can be used to determine which roads need to be repaired first. The possibilities are endless.
If you think about it, the car is really the ultimate mobile device. And we're slowly incorporating all the features of the mobile phone into the car. It can stream your music and be your GPS, so why can't it also serve as your digital assistant? If your car collects information on your habits like Siri or Cortana (or even Facebook) does, it could, for example, suggest an alternate route to help you avoid being late to a meeting, or tell you when you are near your favorite restaurant. What if your car reminded you that it's your spouse's birthday as you passed a gift shop on your way home from work? Perhaps someday, when cars drive themselves, they could even pick up flowers for you (if you don't mind them strapped to the hood).
The only thing better than your car advising an alternate route to work? Placing the directions directly on the windshield so you don't have to look down at a console or phone. Looking for a Thai restaurant but don't know which one to go to? Let your car map several on your windshield for you while it reads reviews through the car speaker. Or suppose you're on a family road trip and your kids ask what historic building you are looking at. Instead of hoping it is in fact Big Ben, let the windshield tell you. Augmented reality is the final culmination of all of these sensors in the car. It takes the data from the car, from other cars, from the Internet, and from any other source, and combines it into one easy screen that you can use safely while driving. We've seen augmented reality on phones (pictured), but this is AR on steroids -- think Google Glass without the social stigma, and at 65 miles per hour.
See what I mean about your car feeling like an antique? Granted, even if your car had all this new technology now, it still wouldn't fly (why do I still have no flying car? It is 2014, for goodness sake), but it would be pretty cool. Just think about how different driving is going to be in the next five or ten years.
Which feature is your favorite? What sensors do you want on your next car? What is going to change your life the most? Are there any you'd rather skip? Tell us in the comments.
See what I mean about your car feeling like an antique? Granted, even if your car had all this new technology now, it still wouldn't fly (why do I still have no flying car? It is 2014, for goodness sake), but it would be pretty cool. Just think about how different driving is going to be in the next five or ten years.
Which feature is your favorite? What sensors do you want on your next car? What is going to change your life the most? Are there any you'd rather skip? Tell us in the comments.
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