Short range internet key to cars connectivity

The development of dedicated short range communications systems (DSRCS) is the key to a future where cars help each other to deal with traffic problems in real time, writes Brian Byrne.

These systems will effectively be car-borne WiFi transmitters by which all the vehicles in an immediate area can communicate.

With a range of around 300 metres, such wireless local area networks (WLANs) will handle the communication 'around the bend' of stopped traffic, obstacles, and crashes.

"It will require a special communications device to be mandated for every new car," says Ford's head of the company's key research centre in Aachen, Germany, Dr Pim van der Jagts, who says it will need an 80-90 percent penetration to be workable.

"In the US this will happen very fast, when the National Highway and Transport Safety Administration (NHTSA) mandates the systems. In Europe it will be more complicated, it is very difficult to get all member states to agree and set a date for implementation."

An intermediate step might be to utilise the mobile phone devices already carried by 90 percent of drivers. But this wouldn't be as useful, both because of the larger number of vehicles in a cellular area and the delay through the phone operators.

"That latency also means that we can't use active intervention, like emergency braking without the driver initiating it."

Getting the WLAN system isn't really a matter of cost — the units might only add €100 euro to the cost of the car at current prices.

"And that could come down," says Dr van der Jagt. "We know that systems get cheaper once the automotive industry gets involved. What we're looking at now is how we can add enough functionality to make it attractive to customers."

He was speaking at a recent Forum on automotive technology and distraction organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association in association with Continental Ireland.

(This is one of a series of stories we are running based on the 2013 IMWA/Continental Forum.)

Emergency reaction slower with automated driving

Drivers who need to react to emergencies do so more slowly from an automated driving scenario than from fully manual driving, writes Brian Byrne.

That conclusion comes from tests carried out by the Institute of Transport Studies at Leeds University, detailed at a recent Forum on Driver Distraction organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association.

Dr Natasha Serat, who leads the Safety & Technology Group at the Institute, said tests in the facility's driving simulator also said that when given a secondary task while the 'car' was in fully autonomous mode, it took the subjects much longer to react to an emergency. "That's when it gets really bad, because they have to switch their attention back on again."

Dr Merat said that in an ideal world, taking the human 'out of the loop' in driving provides an argument that there is improved safety.

"But we need to understand that drivers know what's going on with the automation, what it is doing, and what happens when it switches off ... because that's where things go wrong. We don't know what happens to drivers when we increase the use of these technologies, when they become more supervisors of systems than actual drivers."

Dr Serat, an Associate Professor at the Institute, also noted that drivers need to be aware of the meaning of the various signals, such as 'beeps', when the vehicle systems are trying to warn about something.

She added in conclusion that automation is increasing in vehicles 'whether we like it or not'.

The Forum was held at Dublin's RDS headquarters, and was sponsored by Continental Ireland. It included a presentation by Dr Pim van der Jagt, Head of Ford's Engineering and Advanced Research facility at Aachen, Germany.

Wellbeing spend prods ford to 'health seat'

Technology related to health may well trigger the 'next big thing' in cars, writes Brian Byrne.

That's what has prompted Ford to develop a driver's seat that measures its occupant's heart rate, and which can send a full ECG to the driver's physician.

A blood sugar monitor for diabetics is in development to perform a similar service to, for instance, the parents of a diabetic child in the back of their car.

"More older people will be driving cars in the future," Ford's boss of the company's key research facility in Aachen in Germany told a Forum on automotive technology and distraction in Dublin. "There's a lot of consumer interest in ageing drivers," Dr Pim van der Jagt said, "so it is important that we are researching what systems we can bring to the vehicle to support them."

Dr van der Jagt noted that there are regular occurrances of people having heart attacks while driving, resulting in them impacting with other cars or buildings. "One recent case in Germany involved a car driven directly into a gas station, which had significant implications."

He suggested a future where remote control could be taken of a car where the driver had become unable to continue driving because of a health issue.

It's not just emergency matters, though, which are relevant to the technlogy. It's about productive use of time.

"Some people spend three hours a day in their car. Spending on medical monitoring devices is exploding. If somebody can do the tests in their car which they would normally have to do at home, it's just an example of many things that you can do in your car while commuting."

(This is one of a series of stories we are running based on the 2013 IMWA/Continental Forum.)

Texting 'more dangerous than drink' in driving

Texting while driving is three times more distracting than driving with alcohol impairment, according to research carried out by the UK-based Transport Research Laboratory, writes Brian Byrne.

The information, presented by Dr Natasha Serat, head of the Safety & Technology Group at the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, showed a 35 percent reaction impairment for people texting, compared to a 12 percent impairment by drivers under the influence of alcohol. She was speaking at a recent Forum on Driving Distraction organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association.

Cannabis users in the test registered a more than 30 percent impairment, while the greatest culprit is talking on a handheld phone, at around 46 percent.

In a recent survey of seven countries, drivers in Sweden reported the least number admitting to using a mobile while driving, at 30 percent. They were followed by the UK at 34 percent, Canada at 40 percent, and the US, Spain, New Zealand and Australia at 60 percent.

The Forum was held at Dublin's RDS headquarters, and was sponsored by Continental Ireland. It included a presentation by Dr Pim van der Jagt, Head of Ford's Engineering and Advanced Research facility at Aachen, Germany.

(This is one of a series of stories we are running based on the 2013 IMWA/Continental Forum.)

Car comms 'could address 7 in 10 crashes'

Although most car connectivity systems are currently all about offering convenience in phone and entertainment capability, increasingly they will play much more serious roles in safety, traffic optimisation, and fuel savings, writes Brian Byrne.

That was one of the key propositions in a Forum organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association in association with Continental Ireland.

"Studies have shown that in a future where all cars are able to 'talk' to each other, informing them of position, speed and direction, then they can all take action together," said Dr Pim van der Jagt, MD of Ford's European research centre at Aachen, Germany. "We believe that up to 70 percent of all accidents could be addressed by these technologies. If not completely avoided, the severity of the crashes can be reduced."

Dr van der Jagt suggested a future where cars could automatically warn those following of slippery patches encountered, traffic jams beginning, and electronic transmission of braking from vehicles two or three cars ahead. This allows the driver further back to take earlier action.

"There are infinite possibilities to do with connectivity. In a future when there are enough cars enabled with these systems, there is even the possibility that we can actively by remote take control of a car in a dangerous situation."

Other aspects include the ability of transport infrastructure such as traffic lights being able to communicate with vehicles in the traffic stream so their speed can be regulated to offer a 'green wave' through a city area that would result in fuel and time savings.

A number of trials of such car-to-infrastructure systems have been taking place. A recently-concluded one in Frankfurt is currently being evaluated. The largest to date, in Ann Arbour, near Detroit in the USA, involved some 2,800 vehicles, the vast bulk of them ordinary private cars which had the research equipment connected to their diagnostic connector. The test results will be published in the first quarter of next year.

(This is one of a series of stories we are running based on the 2013 IMWA/Continental Forum.)

Phone talk into tunnel vision

Drivers speaking on the phone while driving are prone to a 'tunnel vision' which could mean they miss potential dangers, writes Brian Byrne.

That was one piece of research revealed by a top 'human factor' psychologist at the recent Forum on driver distraction organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association.

Dr Natasha Serat of the Institute for Transport Studies at Leeds University illustrated how there is a 'massive' drop in peripheral vision when a driver is concentrating on a conversation on a hands-free phone.

The study was carried out by measuring the eye movements of drivers in real traffic situations at a particular junction, with and without the distraction of talking on the phone.

Dr Serat said there were differences between visual distractions where a driver looks away from the road and 'minds off the road' distractions even while watching the road ahead.

"Although you are watching where you are going, you may not see the car preparing to enter the road in front of you, or a pedestrian preparing to cross," said Dr Serat, who is an Associate Professor at the Transport Institute and leads the Safety & Technology Group at the facility.

The Forum was held at Dublin's RDS headquarters, and was sponsored by Continental Ireland. It included a presentation by Dr Pim van der Jagt, Head of Ford's Engineering and Advanced Research facility at Aachen, Germany.

(This is one of a series of stories we are running based on the 2013 IMWA/Continental Forum.)

Safe connectivity is all about the voice

Voice Control is by far the safest way of operating various connectivity and entertainment systems in modern cars, according to the boss of Ford's major research centre in Aachen, Germany, writes Brian Byrne.

Speaking at an important forum on Driver Distraction held in Dublin last week, Dr Pim van der Jagt also said audible output was the preferred way of outputting connectivity information to drivers.

Dr van der Jagt detailed current and coming advances in car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communication, which offer benefits in safety, traffic management and fuel economy.

He told how Ford has developed, in association with Microsoft, its SYNC platform for connectivity which can be constantly updated during the life of a car to take account of the fast pace of electronics development.

Ford has, he said, provided more than 2,500 open software interface and developer kits which allow third-party development of apps for the AppLink feature of SYNC shortly coming to Europe. The apps are made available to SYNC subscribers after rigorous checking by Ford that they can be used in a safe way, with minimal display information and always controlled by voice. Certain types of apps, such as games, aren't allowed into the system.

Apps are already available to US customers through SYNC, which has an installed user base of 6m worldwide and some 65 apps already available through the Ford App Store. They include the Spotify music streaming service and a news service from USA Today which is delivered audibly. One of them is a First Date app which provides to the owner tips on restaurants, movies, and florists in the area so they can make the best impression with a new date.

Similar apps tailored to European needs will first appear in the upcoming EcoSport small SUV and the Fiesta by the end of this year.

The event was organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association in association with Continental Ireland, and was also addressed by Dr Natasha Serat from the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds.

She outlined the Institute's investigations of the interaction of road users with new technology, ranging from developments in road construction through to driver fatigue and distraction from devices within cars.

(This is one of a series of stories we are running based on the 2013 IMWA/Continental Forum.)

Texting a driver could lead to prosecution in US

A court in New Jersey has ruled that someone who sends a text knowing that the recipient is driving could be held liable if the reading of that text results in a car crash, writes Brian Byrne.

The decision, by an appeal court, made clear that the ultimate responsibility always remains with the driver of the vehicle. But if the sender of the text has reason to know that the recipient will read it immediately, 'it is not unfair to hold the sender responsible for the distraction'.

The case went back to 2009 when a teenager driving a pickup truck swerved across a centre line while reading a text, resulting in serious injuries to two people on a motorcycle.

It's not clear if the ruling would stand in other cases or jurisdictions, but it's yet another warning shot across across the bows of drivers who text while behind the wheel.

At a Forum on driver distraction last week organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association, research from the University of Leeds noted that texting while driving is three times more distracting than driving while over the legal limit.

IMWA Forum on distraction

Drivers whose primary attention is diverted by another information imput, are more likely to have accidents, a major road safety forum heard today, writes Trish Whelan.

The conference 'Are we being driven to distraction by developments in Automotive Technologies?' was organised by the Irish Motoring Writers Association (IMWA) and heard expert views from both the producers of in-car information technology and the physiological results of intensive tests on their effects on drivers.

The event in the RDS in Ballsbridge, Dublin, was sponsored by Continental Tyres.

Pictured are Pim van der Jagt, Head of Research and Development at Ford of Europe; Dr Natasha Merat, Associate Professor at the University of Leeds-based Institute for Transport Studies; Gerry Murphy, Chairman IMWA; and Tom Dennigan, Continental Tyres Ireland.