Thanks To Active Safety Systems, You Won't Buy It If You Don't Brake

Hello all,

Interesting comments and questions. Fear not, these systems will work. :)

As Mark mentioned in one exchange, GM is currrently showing the automatic braking as a demonstration of what CAN be done. We're demonstrating the whole spectrum of what's possible using wireless communication technology, from the most basic to the most advanced. However, you can expect to see more and more types of automatic vehicle control appear on the market eventually. Driver assistance features are beginning to proliferate on vehicles, and you can expect automakers to GRADUALLY introduce some autonomy into the vehicle as technology matures. It's anyone's guess as to how long it will be before we have self-driving cars, but there will likely be bits and pieces of automatic control in the near future.

See my specific comments below as ">>>dg" and thanks for your interest!

Don

>>>Scenario (a) is not a problem and the vehicle will not automatically brake. Although the two cars are pointing at each other, it is only for an instant. More importantly, the vehicles are always predicting some seconds ahead based on onboard sensor readings - think of an imaginary line coming out of the front of car that follows the road ahead. So when the vehicle is going around a curve, the system knows pretty well where the car will be 2 seconds from now at any point in time. If the vehicle dynamics change, the prediction will be updated - so unless the driver's predicted line intersects with the other vehicle's predicted line, things are good. The V2V system will know that these vehicles will likely pass each other in the opposite direction. Now if the prediction says that one of the cars is not going to make the turn and cross into your lane, then you can bring braking into the mix.

As Mark mentioned with GPS and the navigation system, communicating vehicles will also know the shapes of the roads, so this will help to determine where the other cars (as well as the driver's car) should be and where they should be going. <<<dg

>>>Scenario (b): Once again the system can read the vehicle sensors and predict that by the time you get through the intersection, he will be gone (based on speed, the angle of the steering wheel, vehicle is accelerating, etc.). These types of systems are based on Time-to-Collision or Time-to-Intersection - and as long as the time doesn't fall below a certain theshold, there is no need to do braking.<<<dg

Okay, here is case (d). Several cars come up to a stop sign. Car number 1 has stopped at the stop line behind the stop sign. I am mentioning this because it is so uncommon to see a guy do that. After cross traffic goes away, the guy starts out a few yards, because when he was at the stop line, he could not see who's coming, as is often the case. He pulls up a few yards and looks and sees traffic coming - and stops. Car number 2 is a Cadillac. At first he assumes that Car #1 is going to go. But I bet his automatic braking system is good, and he will not ram Car #1. Fine.

But will Car #3 ram the Cadillac? Maybe they'd better issue rubber rear bumpers with these automatically equipped Cadillacs.

**Well, in that case the system is working fine! It is Car #3 that either needs to stop tailgating or needs to get a Cadillac with automated braking! **MD

Case (e): In any ordinary braking situation, a computer may decide to apply brakes to avoid an accident. But in any ordinary braking situation, one might be on snow or slush. In that case, a smart driver puts on his brakes very early. Does the computer know about this snow? When? How? If I turn off a well-plowed, sanded road and onto a very slippery side road, when does the automatic computer know, when does it know it, and how does it know it? (Refer to page 138 in my book.)

**Not sure about braking, but again for warning: This is one of the really cool applications talked about in car-to-car communications. If a car in front slips (detected by ESC, electronic stablity control), that slippage info can be relayed to following cars. They can even get a countdown in seconds (based on their speed) as to how far it is to the slippery spot! I think this is a killer ap for car-to-car communications! --MD**

I think I have already learned enough to stay well away from any Cadillacs. And that's ignoring the fact that many Cadillac drivers are old and isolated from the environment, and they don't give a damn about good driving. They just think they can turn the steering wheel and the car will turn. I think this automatic computer can be worse than the guy who's driving it.

(f) I wonder how much of the price of this new automatic machine is left as a fund to pay for lawyers' fees and accident costs.

**GM will take issue with these comments, that's for sure. They've worked tremdously hard to reinvent Cadillac as a brand to appeal to younger (well at least baby boom) drivers. They are certainly a leader on the electronics front, as we've covered OnStar and other GM firsts. But your point about liability is, as I said above, a good one. The braking demo was more about the showing that it could be done. I don't think GM or any car manufacturer would consider taking on the liability of automated driving. Just driver assist/warning, for now. I don't know, though, what the future may hold. The technology to atuomate driving is a lot closer than most people realize. **MD

I quit. More ideas may come tomorrow, but not today. / rap

Now application (c): Start out with case (b), and the guy is turning left and slicing across in front of the Cadillac. Fine.

Suddenly that guy making the left turn sees a pedestrian just about in front of him. I know all about this because I was that pedestrian last Wednesday night, crossing a dark turnpike entrance ramp. I was watching the guy making the left turn. That guy is about square in front of the Cadillac when he has to nail his brakes to keep from hitting the pedestrian - - and now the Cadillac does have to hit his brakes too to avoid the T-bone.

I don't think the radar is necessarily smart enough to know about the pedestrian, is it?

**The GPS would not know about the pedestrian, but infrared and other sensors are being used in cars to increase night vision and to allow the car to sense live animals/people in the road. That information would have to be communicated car-to-car: if the car turning toward the pedestrian was warned about the pedestrian, that info could be relayed to the other cars in the intersection. Again, it might not trigger automated braking, rather an audible alarm, heads up visual warning or haptic signal to help increase driver awareness. You might be interested in last year's article on a company making night vision technology for cars, at ED Online 11549. MD**

(When I am in a situation like that and a car is cutting in front of me, if it is anywhere near a close call, less than a second of clearance, I will have my right foot on the brakes in case I have to use them to keep from hitting the guy. Even if I never do hit the brakes...)

If I can think of three cases where the radar-equipped Cadillac is in trouble, I bet there are more such cases. I'll keep watching for them.

Best regards. / rap

P.S. As Walter Kern used to say, "Automation (pronounced as autumn-8-tion) brings winter-9-shun, which brings spring 10-sion."