Technology is creeping into every inch of our lives, in some ways it increases the danger of driving (driver and pedestrian distractions). But in other ways it aims to balance out the danger. Autonomous driving aims to redress the balance of control. It wrests some of the administrative duties from the driver. We are increasingly handing over the responsibilities of driving to our cars. We are trusting technology to give us the information needed to start and finish a journey without incident.
We got to experience a variety of driver aids recently which demonstrated the ability of tech to reduce preventable accidents. Autonomous driving, braking and the glue that holds them all together, quality high tech tyres. You can have all the technology in the world telling the car what to do, but if it can’t grip or steer properly in dry and wet conditions, the tech is all for nowt. We experienced the importance of quality tyres on a vehicle during a number of demonstrations in conjunction with autonomous technology.
An autonomous driving demonstration was given in a vehicle which had its windows completely blacked out. The only method of piloting the vehicle safely was by using the car’s exterior cameras. It’s a very disorientating experience leaving you feeling slightly seasick as you rely completely on the information provided by the internal screens. We would rely solely on the camera technology to avoid obstacles.
A course was marked out using traffic cones and the driver instructed as how best to manoeuvre safely around the outlined course. The main points of reference were a screen on the dashboard and audio warning sounds. I pressed the accelerator and moved off at 5km/h. Slowly turning the wheel left and right to full lock as we successfully navigated the course. The short course was designed to replicate the approach to a conventional parking space. Settling into the experience, I began to trust the warning signals and felt more comfortable that I wasn’t going to hit anything.
This is what the future is about when it comes to trusting technology when it comes to determining how a car behaves in all situations and speeds.
Next up we tested autonomous braking at low speed. We were presented with a real world lesson of how autonomous braking could save thousands of people from needlessly experiencing low speed accidents due to driver distraction or late braking.
Sitting into a Volvo cockpit, we set off at low speed towards an imaginary parked car. We were instructed not to brake as we neared an object in the road. The vehicle’s systems kicked in and at the last minute it applied the brakes. There was a bit of a jolt admittedly. No one was hurt and the object remained in it’s original shape, as did the Volvo. The braking could do with a little more smoothness to it but all in all I’d rather have a little jolt than hit the car in front.
Another demonstration in tyre technology, showed us how a tyre which had been punctured over fifty times was still fully capable of finishing a course which included braking and swerving on a wet track and then carrying on through corners at speed.
Unlike run flat tyres, the technology doesn’t require a stop into the local garage for a new tyre. It will continue to live out its service until such time the thread depth has reached either the legal limit 1.6mm or the suggested guideline limit of 3.0 mm.
In some respects it was an eye opening day, whereby we experienced first hand the difference between having to rely on car tech to assist in guiding the driver around blindly and for it to take over completely with autonomous braking.
We learned that autonomous braking has some way to go before becoming the norm. And how it should not be expected to take over from the driver, but merely assist in cases of inattention.
All told it was an eventful, successful and informative event at Mondello. The more the public get to experience Autonomous technologies the better. Reading about car technology is one thing but understanding it takes experiencing first hand.
[vimeo 239367737 w=640 h=360] Autonomous for the People | Automotive Technology from Audiofonikk on Vimeo.