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Maybe because their goal is to steadily build a car system that can read the environment and adapt speed and direction based on the actual situation? a map is n
by mkempe 13y ago
Maybe because their goal is to steadily build a car system that can read the environment and adapt speed and direction based on the actual situation? a map is not the territory.
The latest models also detect pedestrians, bikes, and even animals -- and the car sets off an alarm and brakes so that we don't run over them. High beams are politely turned off when meeting another car, as well as when passing near pedestrians. The software also performs lane detection, shows you where you're heading when moving in reverse, signals to the driver when another vehicle is close by to the left or right, even if you can't seen them in the rearview mirrors.
Volvo has a goal of preventing or mitigating accidents to such an extent that by 2020 nobody will die in a Volvo when there is a car accident. Their commitment to the safety of car passengers was such that they let everyone freely use their patented seat-belt system when they improved it. They've been running a team in Sweden for decades that travels to every single car accident involving a Volvo, so that they can understand the causes and consequences of the accident, sometimes even repeat the event in lab conditions -- and they can improve the cars accordingly.
Yes, we own a (new) Volvo -- we picked it up at the factory in Sweden, drove around Europe for a few weeks, and returned it for them to ship it over to our US address.
- brownbat 13y agoI wonder what happens to speed limits when self driving cars are ubiquitous... I mean, once there are no more revenue from violations, and cars know ideal speeds far better than legislatures, should we just let the computers figure out what speed they want to go?
- toong 13y agoCurrently, 'recuding accidents' are the primary driver for speed regulations (at least in Europe) There are a lot of other variables to optimize for, both on individual basis (fuel, travel time, battery life, ...) and collective basis (congestion locallity, total time lost in congestion, emissions, ...) I guess legislatures - over time - will try to optimize some variables for 'the greater good' instead of minimizing your travel time :-)
- riffraff 13y agodo you mean reducing accidents (is the primary driver..), or are "recuding accident" a category of accidents?
- malandrew 13y agoWow. Total TIL moment. I love the fact that they take pedestrian safety seriously. I can't think of any other car manufacturer that really does that.
- _pmf_ 13y agoFor certain safety classes, to reach the highest qualification, the vehicle-under-test must pass some pedestrian accident scenarios, so it's not that the manufacturers do this out of good will. The S-Class used to flatten pedestrians quite liberally, which caused it to fail certain tests, which in turn caused them to implement this: http://www.daimler.com/dccom/0-5-1210222-1-1210363-1-0-0-1210342-0-0-135-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html http://www.daimler.com/dccom/0-5-1210222-1-1210363-1-0-0-121...
- augustl 13y agoI wonder how lane detection works. I've had it warn me in a situation where there was no markings on the asphalt due to recent construction work, so it seems to be more clever than just detecting when you drive over markings.