can the new Mercedes stop itself if you’re about to crash?
For some years, car companies have been experimenting with things like adaptive cruise control, that prevent you from getting too close to the car in front by slowing the vehicle down. For some years now, the technology has been available to actually bring the car to a stop if certain conditions are met, and that is making its way into the mainstream now. Mercedes calls their system DISTRONIC PLUS.
I doubt that they would claim that it will necessarily prevent you from crashing, but it will certainly make an effort to avoid it.
Still hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNi17YLnZpg
I’ve seen a top gear segment where they tested this Mercedes and it seemed to work, the car came to a halt by itself when the car in front started slowing down and stopped. in another segment they had a BMW that could replicate a round around their track. They drove it once and then the car did the lap all by itself…They also had a segment with a Lexus (?) that could park itself.
I’m surprise that they can make a computer do this stuff reliably enough to trust people’s lives with it. For auto cruise control, how can it tell a car in your lane from one in the next lane, on a curving road? With auto breaking, how can it tell a car from a cardboard box? An injured human from a pile of clothes?
I am not an expert in this field, but I would assume that with multiple cameras and modern computing power, this would be quite easy to achieve.
Why would the system need to make such a distinction? If there is an obstacle in the road, you’re going to want to (at least make an effort) to stop, right, no matter what it is? I suppose you could program a really clever system to recognise your ex-wife as distinct from all other obstructions, and hit the accelerator :).
The bottom line is that none of these systems (at least at the moment) is designed to replace the input of the driver, they are simply a driver aid, like ABS or traction control. The system mentioned by the OP is not new, I believe it was first fitted to the Mercedes E-Class some years ago. I remember reading at the time that Mercedes’ research had shown that many rear-end collisions are caused not because the driver did not have room to brake and stop, but because the driver did not recognise quickly enough that this was an emergency-stop situation, and failed to apply the brakes hard enough. Most drivers will have experienced this on the highway where a car a long way in front may brake suddenly, and it takes a second or two to realise that you are suddenly approaching it at ~60mph. I understand the Mercedes system somehow realises this more quickly than the average driver, and applies the brakes hard enough to stop safely.
I don’t think the point is to trust people’s lives with it – that is, to leave it entirely up to the computer. It’s just another safety feature in case the driver gets distracted for a second.
As for your question about a curving road, I actually work in this area, somewhat peripherally, and I can tell yoiu about that. These systems actually come with a very very precise map, much more precise than what normally comes iwth a GPS system. Down to centimeters of accuracy. And they come with positioning systems that use various techniques beyond basic GPS to determine the car’s position on the road to similar accuracy. So it KNOWS where the curves are, and whether the car is folowing the curve correctly. It’s really sophisticated.
At this point, I believe they can’t do it reliably enough to trust people’s lives to it, and as far as I am aware don’t even make this claim. I expect this would be just another fallible line of defense. Something like before if you didn’t see the pedestrian he was toast, now there is a 50% chance he is toast and a 50% chance the car will stop itself in time (hopefully the actual numbers would be better but you get the idea). The cruise control would be similar - right now cruise control doesn’t mean you can go to sleep, it just means you can rest your feet in a more comfortable spot. The auto cruise control means that you don’t have to stop doing this when coming up on slower traffic (unless of course it doesn’t work right and you end up at an uncomfortable following distance).
The only issue I can see with all of this is that if people are more careless thinking they can rely on these items. I don’t think this is the case - I’m not convinced many of the safety enhancements over the years have contributed to carelessness.
Lots of cars have “lane departure warning” systems that work well in my experience (I don’t own a car that has it, but I’ve test driven them). However, the automatic cruise control systems I’m aware of don’t steer for you – they just keep an appropriate distance from the car ahead. You still have to steer. There may be one or two out there that steer for you, but I think they’d still be in the concept stage (or at least not available in the US).
No, there are many examples of things I’d rather hit on the highway if the alternative is to slam on my breaks and risk getting rear-ended.
Mercedes certainly isn’t impressing me with their lame distracted driver commercials and pompus “The best or nothing” tag line.
I am an expert in this field and they’ve been doing it for years. It’s just a question be being able to make the hardware and software reliable and inexpensive enough at the same time. It’s one thing to make a control system for an Apollo Lunar Module. The economics for mass-market consumer products like automobiles are a bit different. Mercedes is just beginning to incorporate a little computer autonomy. It will be interesting to see what the future holds in this area.
On a slight tangent, I saw a Nissan commercial the other day that showed a group of cars moving on a freeway like a flock of birds. I think there was a voice-over that reinforced the image. It made me imagine a proximity control system that would make freeway traffic flow so much more smoothly.
Most, if not all, ACC (Automatic Cruise Control) systems use RADAR to detect the object in front of your car.
I’m also interested to see how “automated” auto makers are willing to make their brake systems and what consumer response will be.
Fair enough - but as I explained later in my post (though I see now I wasn’t very clear in saying that the second part was qualifying the first part), this system is not (currently) designed to apply the brakes if the driver does not, but to increase the braking force if the driver brakes insufficiently.