Your next car might know you better than most of your friends or family do.
Stanford conducts a wide array of automotive research. A team representing the university has competed in DARPA's Urban Grand Challenge, an event that showcases breakthroughs in self-driving cars. Stanford's robot, Junior, was the first to cross the finish line in the competition last November.
(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET News.com)If current research pans out, the car of the future could figure out not only where you drive, what sort of music you listen to, news preferences, what you like to eat, or whom you are calling--but it might also know how your mood affects your driving. And eventually, it could turn into the ultimate backseat driver, taking full control if it's not satisfied with the way you're manning the steering wheel.
It might sound like something from the distant future, but researchers at Stanford University are working on all manner of technological improvements to the automobile. They're hoping features like camera detection of face movements, voice analysis, and sensors in the steering wheel will result in cars that can accurately detect a driver's mood and make appropriate adjustments if it's affecting their driving.
Clifford Nass, a professor at Stanford and director of its Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab, believes autonomous driving will not be limited by the technology itself, but rather how much responsibility people are willing to outsource to their cars. We have already seen them give up some control. Antilock brakes and stabilization systems, for instance, are already standard features, and the next step could manage everything from imposing speed controls for lead-footed drivers to using sensors trained on road surfaces to guide the car by itself.
The lab is also looking at ways in which cars can improve someone's driving by giving them audible feedback. Some drivers are already having conversations with their cars every day, interacting with navigation or voice-operated music systems, for instance. But that's still a relatively new technology.
"Talking directly to your car is not all that common...but increasingly, the car is inviting you to talk. What is going to happen next is cars talking to you. There is a great interest in how cars can teach you to be a better driver," Nass said in an interview with CNET News.com at the university campus.
Researchers are busy exploring how drivers behave in simulated situations, and they've found that feedback from the dashboard isn't always welcome. In trials, a synthetic car voice might tell people, "You're not driving very well and you need to pay more attention." That message actually tended to worsen people's driving habits as they got angry, and with more sincere warnings like, "You really need to be more careful," driving deteriorated even more until the voice insisted that the driver pull over--the driver getting so furious that the trial ended with an accident, (fortunately, just a virtual one).
The tone of the car's voice is important. Studies show that happy people drive best when they get advice from a happy sounding voice (listen to MP3), while the performance of drivers who are upset improves by 40 percent if the voice is more subdued flat (listen to MP3).
For drowsy drivers, some intellectual challenges can work out well. Stanford tested people by playing them Swedish language learning tapes and found that the ones who repeated the sentences stayed more alert.
"A small amount of talkback makes people stay more awake," said Nass, who thinks it could be beneficial for a car to engage its driver in a little conversation. There are cultural differences between countries that also need to be addressed. Some years ago, the German car maker BMW had a product recall of its 5-series because German male drivers could not stand the female voice in the navigation system. In driving simulations in Japan, people got upset if the mood recognition system used in simulations told them they were sad, while that was not a problem for people doing the same tests in the U.S.
Another goal is to develop cars that help elderly people, since graying populations all over the world continue to drive, but might be aided by warning systems for red lights, stop signs, or pedestrians. Stanford has teamed up with the American Association for Retired People for this development project.
Inexperienced young drivers have a whole other set of problems, as it takes 10 years to become a good driver, Nass said.
"One possibility is to let the car take over; like when entering a highway, the car can hit the gas for you," Nass said.
Two issues likely arise down the road are advertisements (would you want your car to deliver commercial messages?) and personal integrity (do you want insurance companies to monitor your driving behavior?).
"What the car industry is going to do (with all these technology advances) is a great question," Nass said.
Car manufacturers all over the world are following the experiments with great interest. After all, Silicon Valley has, in a very short time, become the R&D center for many car-tech companies as cars get new interface technology and become computing devices. "Everybody's opening up facilities here. This is the place now for car research," Nass said.
Last year, Volkswagen gave $5.7 million as a gift to Stanford's new CarLab, an effort to pool all car-related research into one place. The CarLab will be formally opened in September. One important focus will be the transition from non-autonomous cars to a vehicle that can operate itself.
"How willing will people be to let the car take over for you? That is one of the main missions with CarLab," Nass said.
Dash Express
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)It's been almost two years since Dash Navigation first announced its Dash Express portable navigation system, and we're happy to say that you can now finally get your hands on this device. The Dash Express is unlike any other portable navigation system on the market today because it offers two-way connectivity (cellular and Wi-Fi), giving drivers access to a whole new world of information via the Internet and the network of other Dash-connected users. You can conduct live (and more relevant) Web searches via Yahoo Local search; get real-time traffic data; wirelessly send addresses to the system; and much more. It really adds value to portable navigation devices, and it's the type of innovation that we think will take GPS to the next level--so much so that we even gave it a Best of CES 2007 award. So did it deliver? Was it worth the wait? Well now, you'll just have to read our full review to find out, won't ya?
Greater availability of silicon germanium chips and better reliability in bad weather will make radar technology favored over other automotive obstacle detection technologies, according to an ABI Research report released Wednesday.
There are four major types of obstacle detection technologies currently used in vehicles for applications like blind spot detection and parking assistance. Radar will probably win out over sonar, lidar, and cameras, said David Alexander, principle analyst at ABI Research, who specializes in telematics and automotive research .
"Lidar and radar were a couple years ago on a few cars and they were the competing systems...There are lidar systems for about $600 and the radar systems tend to be about $2,000. We thought there would be a boost for lidar, but over last couple of years this hasn't happened. We see that radar sensors are going to come down in cost significantly and it is also much more reliable in bad weather conditions," said Alexander.
Radar uses radio waves that bounce off obstacles. There is a transmitter and antenna that receives the signal. Radar can determine not only the obstacle, but also its speed in relation to the vehicle.
"A radar beam does not care if an object is reflective. If it's a solid object (radar) will detect (it)," said Alexander.
Lidar, on the other hand, uses a low-power laser to emit a beam and analyze its reflection to determine the speed and proximity of a nearby object. But because it uses a form of light that is easily reflected, dispersed, and sometimes absorbed, lidar does not do as well as radar in snow, fog, and heavy rain--when drivers likely need their blind spot detection most. Lidar is also less reliable than radar when faced with a nonreflective object like a car with caked-on mud.
The sensors used in radar systems will also soon be coming down in price. That will make the pricey but more reliable technology even more viable, said Alexander.
Radar sensors are currently expensive because they use gallium arsenide, a combination of elements for its sensor core that are very expensive and difficult to get manufacturers to work with it. It is commonly found in military and aviation radar uses. But the other technology that can be used is SiGe (silicon germanium).
"They're expecting SiGe chips to be available in 2009 and in volume in 2010. What's nice with these SiGe (chips) is that manufacturers have experience manufacturing these types of things quickly, accurately, and cheaply, and so expect the price to come down as volume grows, " said Alexander.
Cameras with image analyzing processors will also have their place.
Several manufactures have been using one or more cameras coupled with analyzing image processors. These cameras have multiple functions in obstacle detection, whereas with radar and lidar there is only the ability to detect an object and its speed. Even though the systems are expensive and not as reliable as people would like just yet, cameras can detect things like road markings and, therefore, be used for lane-departure warning systems. That's something radar and lidar simply can't do.
The newest generation of adaptive cruise control also uses a combination of cameras and sensors, allowing it to work better in stop-and-go cruise control modes.
Since you're using the gas anyway, why not convert the heat from your car engine into useful electricity?
That's the basic premise behind the work of Terry Tritt, professor and director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Center of Excellence in Thermoelectric Materials Research at Clemson University.
Terry Tritt, director of the Department of Energy's Center of Excellence in Thermoelectric Materials Research
(Credit: Clemson University)Thermoelectric generators are currently used to convent radioactive heat into electricity by NASA for deep space probes. The same technology could be applied to the automotive combustion cycle, which wastes more than 60 percent of its energy through heat, according to a paper Tritt delivered at the Alan MacDairmid Memorial Nano Energy Summit in Dallas in early October.
"Even at the current efficiencies of thermoelectric devices, 7 to 8 percent, more than 1.5 billion gallons of diesel could be saved each year in the U.S. if thermoelectric generators were used on the exhaust of heavy trucks. That translates into billions of dollars saved," Tritt said in a statement.
Of course, it's not as simple as stuffing a thermoelectric generator into the trunk of your car. The success of the proposal rests on developing more efficient thermoelectric materials, according to Tritt.
But there are some options on the market for harnessing at least a portion of that unused energy, according to a recent article in Popular Mechanics, even if they are not completely efficient.
Besides Toyota Motor and BMW, automakers haven't done a great job of building fleets that emit less carbon dioxide, according to an Environmental Defense report.
The organization's 80-page report, called "Automakers' Corporate Carbon Burdens" (PDF), evaluated the carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles from major automakers between 1990 and 2005. Companies graded were: Ford Motor, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, Honda Motor, Nissan Motor, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, Volkswagen, BMW, Subaru and Mitsubishi Motors.
"The rate of carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and light trucks in the U.S. dipped for the first time in two decades, but their overall contribution to global warming has continued to grow steadily since 1990," Environmental Defense said in a statement.
BMW achieved a 12 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions across its entire fleet of cars, more than any of the other car companies included in the study. Environmental Defense attributes the drop to the company's addition of the low carbon dioxide-emitting Mini Cooper to its lineup, as well as efficiency improvements made across its entire line of cars.
Toyota was rated the second best, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 3 percent overall during that period, due in large part to its introduction of the Prius hybrid to its lineup and efficiency improvements made to the Corolla.
The report also rated the overall "carbon burden" that automakers placed on the environment, based on factors that included the emissions of their cars and the number of cars sold.
In this area, GM ranked No. 1, with a 6.5 percent reduction in overall carbon burden. Environmental Defense, however, attributed this to GM's loss of market share, not to the carbon dioxide emissions of its overall lineup, which actually rose 3 percent. In contrast, Toyota, while low in its 3 percent carbon dioxide emissions reduction rate, grew its carbon burden by 125 percent, due to an increase in overall sales.
Environmental Defense combined the average over an entire lineup of cars and light trucks from 1990 to 2005 to determine an automaker fleet's average carbon dioxide emissions rate:
• BMW, reduced 12.3 percent.
• Toyota, reduced 3 percent .
• Volkswagen, up 1.3 percent.
• Subaru, up 1.6 percent.
• General Motors, up 3 percent.
• Mitsubishi, up 4 percent.
• Honda, up 4.4 percent.
• Ford, up 4.7 percent.
• DaimlerChrysler, up 4.8 percent.
• Nissan, up 9.2 percent.
• Hyundai, up 17 percent.
• Kia, up 30 percent.
HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion
(Credit: HP )Last year, HP introduced its HP iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion, a sleek gadget that combined the powers of a PDA and a portable navigation system into one solution. It was the first GPS device for the company, and based on user opinions, it was a pretty successful product. Now, HP has decided to embark on its first GPS-only venture with the new HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion. I got a sneak preview a couple of weeks ago, and I must say, I'm pretty impressed. Unlike the rx5900, which used TomTom software, HP created its own interface for the iPaq 310, and it was pretty intuitive to use from the brief time I had with the product. Maps looked nice and sharp on the 4.3-inch, 480x800 pixel resolution touch screen, and I was really digging the 3D building renderings. Everything else is pretty standard; the system comes preloaded with maps of North America and features text-to-speech functionality, integrated Bluetooth for hands-free calling, and an online trip planning site. The HP iPaq 310 Travel Companion will be available in late September and will go for somewhere in the $399 to $499 price range--not too shabby.
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Could two icons of aesthetics be on the verge of announcing a fruitful partnership?
Apple and Volkswagen are reported to be in talks about an "iCar" or car integration system, according to reports from German magazine Capital and the Associated Press.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Audi Chairman Martin Winterkorn, who heads the Audi brand group that includes Volkswagen, met recently in California to discuss ideas, but no concrete plans, a Volkswagen representative told the Associated Press.
"We wouldn't comment on rumors and speculation," said Tom Neumyar, senior manager for iPod and iTunes at Apple.
Volkswagen of America would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
Volkswagen has been concentrating on the development of its navigation and human interface, Frank Weith, technical strategy manager for Volkswagen of America, told CNET News.com in an interview last week.
Its customers can expect to see some interesting things in this space in the near to long-term future, said Weith.
"I look at the vehicle as being static in a sense where you can create an environment where the vehicle can be connected to your home system. You can download your iTunes. We have a navigation companion on our Web site. You can download your trip, where you're going and, eventually, depending on the access, to download a movie. You can create the environment that you would like to have but make it static, download a week of your Internet," he said.
A Volkswagen/Apple partnership could give new cause for a leopard-themed Beetle.
(Credit: Volkswagen)
Hotz drives a bargain
(Credit: CNET Networks)What would you give to get your hands on the world's first unlocked Apple iPhone? How about three more 8GB iPhones plus a Nissan 350Z? That's the price for which overnight teenage tech celebrity George Hotz, who unlocked the iPhone enabling it to work on any network, has agreed to part with his hacked gadget. According to his blog, Hotz accepted the offer on Saturday from Terry Daidone, the founder of cell-phone refurbishing company Certicell. If only Hotz had held out for a BMW or an Audi, he could have used his new ride to play music from one of his new phones. We're pretty confident that the whiz kid might be able to figure out a workaround for his new Nissan, though.
Via Autoblog
Volvo's Driver Alert lets you know when your driving skills wane and it's time for a coffee break.
(Credit: Volvo Car)Five new high-tech features will be available on Volvo's S80, V70 and XC70 models by the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday.
The Swedish company joins the ranks of several automakers who are bringing high-tech features to even the most budget models.
Volvo's most interesting feature may be a new take on monitoring driver behavior.
Driver Alert Control, as Volvo calls it, uses a camera and sensors to monitor a car's general behavior in terms of speed and staying in lane, not the driver's behavior within a cockpit. If, through a combination of factors, it calculates poor driving the car will sound a beep and flash a coffee cup on screen to remind the driver to take a break.
Adaptive cruise control, as with most cars, allows the driver to set a speed range and desired distance from the next car. The system then self-regulates speed based on those parameters.
Volvo also includes a distant alert feature that will additionally give a warning if the driver is tailgating while not in adaptive cruise control mode.
An updated version of the collision warning system Volvo released in 2006 will now automatically brake if the driver does not react in time after being given a warning. The car uses a combination of radar and camera to determine imminent crashing with other objects.
A feature to help prevent drifting into other lanes or changing lanes without warning other drivers, which Volvo says is the cause of a quarter of all accidents in the U.S., has also been added.
Volvo's lane departure warning system uses a camera to track road markings and sound an alarm when drivers depart their lane without signaling. The system differs from the BMW and Audi lane departure warning systems that vibrate the steering wheel to mimic the feeling of rumble strips when drivers drift out of lane.
News of the high-tech feature availability follows Volvo's announcement that its 2008 C30 turbo diesel "Efficiency" model will get 52 miles per gallon.
(Credit:
Autoblog)
Not to be outdone by its Teutonic rival, Audi has followed BMW's lead in announcing that its cars are now fully compatible with the Apple iPhone. Those lucky souls who own both an Audi and an iPhone will now be able to connect the two for Bluetooth hands-free calling, while those even luckier souls with an A5, A6, A8 or Q7 can use Audi's optional AMI music interface to play music via the phone's iPod function.
If you own neither an Audi nor an iPhone, you can still take some solace in the free Audi-inspired ringtones that the automaker offers on its Web site.
Via Autoblog
