To aid in this effort, the S-Class has been outfitted with a bevy of sensors. You’ve got a pair of short range radio sensors in the front along with two more in the rear, plus a long-range sensor in the grille, a stereo camera behind the rear view mirror, four cameras for a 360-degree view of the car’s surroundings, and 12 ultrasonic sensors. This all works with the Distronic Plus radar-based cruise control system that is getting a major update with the new sedan coming out next year.

In addition to controlling your gas and brake in stop-and-go traffic, there’s also a steering assist feature that will keep you in your lane. It does this by using the various cameras and radar sensors, reading road markings and cars around you at speeds of up to 124mph. Oddly, this “semi-autonomous following” only works when you have your hands on the wheel. The car won’t really “drive itself” unless you’re prepared to drive it too.

Mercedes has also replaced all the light bulbs in the car–both interior and exterior–with LEDs instead. You basically have permanent high beams on, but they’ll dim when the car’s cameras detect another vehicle. That applies to the brake lights too, dimming during the day and getting brighter when you slam on the brake pedal.

There is also Brake Assist Plus with Cross-Traffic Alert to stop the car if you’re about to get T-boned. The front stereo camera will read road signs and display information on your dashboard; the 3rd-gen Night View Assist provides a night vision HUD to avoid nocturnal mishaps; the auto park feature does both parallel and stall parking with complete control of the steering, gas, and brakes; and even the seatbelts have been notched up with added tech, including added airbags and accident energy-dissipating features.

Most of the new features are in the name of safety and while some people may be fearful to relinquish that kind of control to a “smart” car computer, it indicates where the automotive industry is heading. And all those cameras and sensors tell us where we’re heading too.

[Source]

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Taking advantage of technology from the existing active park assist, adaptive cruise control, Lane-Keeping Aid and the PowerShift transmission, Traffic Jam Assist works to drive the car for you under stop-and-go conditions. It does this by monitoring the car in front of you with radar and camera technology, adaptively accelerating and braking on your behalf to keep pace with other vehicles, including those that may suddenly cut you off. The automated steering control will keep you in your current lane too. They say that this technology is being developed “for the mid-term.”

If more cars are equipped with similar technology, we could see improved traffic flow and faster commute times for everyone. It’s all that stop and go that really slows us down.

Ford has also announced that they are working on an upgraded version of its active park assist system. This already lets you parallel park automatically, steering you into a parking spot with only brake input from the driver. The hands-free system is being upgraded for perpendicular parking too, like you would see at the mall parking lot.

It finds a spot with ultrasonic sensors and then steers you into the spot using electric power-assisted steering. Presumably, the user interface is the same, so you don’t need to gas but it’s still up to you to apply the brake (and clutch) and change gears as needed. I’ve used the parallel parking with Ford’s active park assist and while it’s definitely a neat feature, I find that it’s still much slower than parking the old-fashioned way. I guess slow and safe is better than fast with a dented bumper.

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“No, it can’t see your underwear but it can tell how tall you are and exactly how far you are standing in respect to a car.”

LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is a new way of looking at the world.   With 64 spinning lasers, LIDAR images the world in a true 3D manner by measuring the distance from a stationary or moving position at a million points per second.   The image is recreated by the control software in a similar way as modern video gaming operates.

As a competitor in the second DARPA Grand Challenge, David Hall came up with the idea.  His first version of the LIDAR was the size of a spare tire spinning on top of his green Toyota Tundra.   It was a successful design and Hall went on to make a smaller version that was used on five of the six finishing vehicles in the recent Urban Grand Challenge.

According to the New York Times, Google insists that safety is one of the top purposes of bringing these vehicles to the road.  With instant reaction time and 360-degree awareness, engineers believe these computers have the potential to significantly decrease automobile-related deaths and accidents.  Unlike human drivers, LIDAR doesn’t get tired, it doesn’t get distracted, and it doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel.

David Hall started the company Velodyne, now located in Morgan Hill, CA, based on an invention in the audio business that improved speaker system sound quality.   He turned the day to day managing of the company over to his brother, Bruce Hall, and now spends his time thinking up new inventions.

You may one day get the opportunity to read the paper, eat breakfast, pay a few bills, email your college roommate, and work the thigh master all during a morning commute.  Your grandparents may be able to shop for groceries, visit your kiddies, and enjoy a longer independent life with LIDAR assisting their driving.

Although it may be several years before they hit the road, these cars have already been tested on 140,000 miles of California roads from the Silicon Valley to Santa Monica.

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