The Year of The EV article tells that We can dub 2011 the year of the EV (electric vehicles) and gives a timeline what happened 2011. The end result is that today there are enough Volts on the road (along with competitors like Nissan’s Leaf, various hybrids, and an electric Ford Focus) that it might be safe to suggest that the electric car is here to stay.
There has been many different car charging connectors in use on electronic vehicles. Electric Car Charging Standards Split article tells that many car manufacturers have agreed on a single EV charging port connector standard that has been in development by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for several years. European car companies have been divided on standards for both AC and DC charging. The new single connector will support fast DC charging as well as be backward compatible with the J1772 AC charger that is standard on many plug-in electric vehicles today. I think that use of that standard will rise in 2012, and common charging standard will speed up the EV deployment.
Automotive electronics: What’s hot in 2012 article tells that in automotive electronics, 2012 looks to be a year of consolidation as technologies introduced previously become more widespread across model lines. In particular, voice recognition, with different features and interfaces, is seen as a way of distinguishing one brand from another, while electrified power trains in the form of hybrids and pure electric drives will be available in more models. In keep costs down driven auto industry the more mature the technology that goes into a car, the less risk of failure and costly warranty claims.
Cars and smartphones start to communicate using MirrorLink technology to allow new features. MirrorLink™ has been developed with the objective to provide a technology, offering seamless (extremely simple from the consumer perspective) connectivity between a smart phone and the in-vehicle infotainment system. It uses IP technologies in order to be independent of the physical transport mechanism and supports many car connectivity solutions (Bluetooth, WLAN, USB etc.). Whereas MirrorLink™ does allow any legacy application on the mobile device to show-up on the car display, it specifically enables easy development of mobile device based automotive applications.
Ethernet for Vehicles is gaining momentum in in the car. Ethernet for Vehicles Advances article tells that Ethernet technology in the car (a concept that was once unthinkable for the automotive industry) has been gaining momentum lately. Special interest group, known as the OPEN (One-Pair-Ether-Net) SIG, is aimed at driving broad-scale adoption of Ethernet in vehicles, largely to serve the expected boom of camera-based applications in cars. Many vehicles now have backup cameras, and many others are going to add cameras for such applications as lanekeeping, adaptive cruise control, and collision avoidance.
There is going to be an increasing number of Driver Information applications that involve displaying complex images and graphics. Xilinx Paves the Way for a New Generation of Automotive Driver Assistance and Infotainment Systems at CES 2012. World’s first Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based Ethernet Audio/Video Bridging (EAVB) network implementation optimized for carrying high-speed data traffic within the automobile was shown at CES 2012. The IEEE 802.1 EAVB standard is already gaining the attention of a number of leading automotive manufacturers even though the specifications are still being finalized. OMG! Amazing home displays and automotive Ethernet AVB stuff from Xilinx article gives some more details what is expected in near future.
New electronics features are making challenges for developers. Automotive Electronics: Do We Really Need All This Stuff? article tells that everyone in the auto industry knows that the number of electronic control units (ECUs) in vehicles is nearing the point of unmanageability. Low-end vehicles now incorporate between 35 and 40 ECUs, while luxury cars may have 80 or more. “We’re right up against the limit right now. We need to find unique ways to integrate features and functions, and give our customers what they want without overloading our controllers.” The number of automotive features and functions keeps rising.
Would Cellphone Ban Secure Car Safety? article tells that the proliferation of in-car entertainment technologies (internet routers, smartphone links, MP3 connections, capacitive touch screens, etc.) are great for selling cars. Auto executives understand what consumers want: Many people don’t want a car with no extra features. Those new extra features have also sparked a serious debate about driver distraction dangers. “According to NHTSA [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration], more than 3,000 people lost their lives last year in distraction-related accidents.” “You’re dealing with human nature here. People want what they want. And sometimes they want more than they should have.”
Slideshow: Electronics Add Glitter to New Rolls-Royce
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1395&doc_id=261146&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Rolls-Royce is rolling out a new fastback-style vehicle that cranks out 624 HP, goes from 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, and employs more electronic technology than any vehicle in the company’s storied history.
Known as the Wraith, the new luxury car combines a V-12 engine with an eight-speed, satellite-aided transmission that “sees” the road ahead. It also incorporates LED exterior lights, a “starry night” array of fiber-optic lamps on the ceiling, and a touchscreen that reads handwritten messages. “It’s a very intuitive vehicle,” Rolls-Royce spokesman James Warren told Design News. “It can see beyond what the driver sees.”
“It uses the GPS data to see the topology and the bends in the road ahead,” Warren told us. “Then it makes sure you’re in the ultimate gear when going into a hard corner, and the ultimate gear coming out of that corner.”
Night-vision technology also aids drivers. Infrared cameras project a thermal image on-screen that highlights warm objects, such as pedestrians or deer, in the road ahead. When the system spots a warm object, it places a yellow warning triangle on the windshield’s heads-up display.
Slideshow: BMW’s All-Electric Concept Coupe
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1366&doc_id=255754&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
The i3 Concept Coupe is the third electrified car BMW has announced in the past 18 months. It joins the racy i8 hybrid and a five-door vehicle (also called the i3) that is slated to reach production at the end of 2013. Like the five-door car, the coupe will be designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle.
Audio synthesis and noise reduction in modern vehicles
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4410942/Audio-synthesis-and-noise-reduction-in-modern-vehicles
Audio optimization has become a mainstream issue for today’s auto designers. From compensating for the absence of engine noise to keeping sound levels down in the vehicle interior, audio synthesis and noise suppression solutions can help.
In seeking ways to counter rising fuel prices and lessen environmental impacts, the auto industry is staking out two key trajectories. One is the industry’s commitment to lightweight design.
The other is the trend toward hybrid and electric vehicles that can complete at least part of a journey solely on electric power.
What both developments have in common is the challenge they present for vehicle noise optimization. The lower the vehicle’s target weight is, the less material can be installed to reduce noise, meaning that noise penetrates the vehicle interior (and passenger ears) unmitigated.
Electric motor-powered vehicles, on the other hand, by their very nature emit little or no noise at all. As a result, pedestrians are unable to hear an electric vehicle until it is virtually upon them – or worse still, they fail to hear the car at all.
To counteract these effects, auto manufacturers need effective systems which can synthesize sound in electric vehicles to warn pedestrians, and that can also suppress interior noise successfully. A solution that excels at both, external sound synthesis and internal noise suppression, is HALOsonic, a joint development of HARMAN and the British developer Lotus Engineering.
Aluminum-air battery fuels electric vehicle for 1,000 miles
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Power_Products/Batteries_and_Fuel_Cells/Aluminum-air_battery_fuels_electric_vehicle_for_1_000_miles.aspx
New technology shows remarkable capability for producing energy
A new type of aluminum-air battery has proven capable of providing enough energy to power an electric vehicle for up to 1,000 miles — with only occasional stops to take on more water.
The company behind the battery is Phinergy, an Israeli developer of metal-air energy systems.
For those unfamiliar with the technology, metal-air batteries get their energy via interaction between oxygen and metals, with the metal acting as the cathode, the oxygen in the air serving as the cathode, and water being used as an electrolyte.
Once the plate of aluminum is depleted, it turns to aluminum hydroxide. The metal is considered unusable and needs to be replaced / recycled in an aluminum factory.
As the water is used, it too needs to be replaced. On average, the system needs a water fill-up every 200 miles or so.
What makes Phinergy’s system worth covering is that it seems to have solved a long-standing issue with metal-air batteries.
Air-metal batteries are a unique form of portable power in that they use metal as a fuel source as opposed to a battery component. Replacing the metal when it is depleted can be costly.
Phinergy states that they believe cars using their aluminum-air batteries will be sold commercially come 2017.
Report: 2013 Will Make or Break Alternative Fuels
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=261517
This will be the year that makes or breaks individual alternative fuel technologies in North America, according to a new report from Lux Research, “Leading Alternative Fuel Developers Race to Real Revenue in 2013.” Several next-generation plants are scheduled to begin operations, while funding sources are changing. The result is that some alternative fuels sources look like better prospects than others.
The trillion-dollar North American fuels market is so large there’s room for multiple technologies
Slideshow: Conservative Design Makes Japanese Cars More Reliable
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1366&doc_id=261519
A car that’s more reliable is a direct result of design philosophy and may not necessarily be engineered better. That’s the takeaway from the latest Consumer Reports used car reliability survey, which once again placed Toyota and Honda at the top, far ahead of carmakers based in North America and Europe.
“The engineering in American car companies is just as good or better than anywhere else in the world, as is the manufacturing,” Jake Fisher, director of auto testing for Consumer Reports, told us. “It’s just that there’s a whole different design philosophy.”
The reason American and European cars do so poorly in the magazine’s annual owner reliability survey (appearing in the April issue) is that the automakers tend to incorporate more cutting-edge technology in their vehicles
“Consumers probably assume that the Japanese manufacturers are at the forefront of technology,” Fisher said. “But they’re not quite as cutting-edge as the Europeans and the domestics. That’s one of the reasons they do so well every year.”
Automotive Electronics in 2013 and Beyond – Batteries Bear a Burden
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Power_Products/Power_Management/Automotive_Electronics_in_2013_and_Beyond_–_Batteries_Bear_a_Burden.aspx
This year will see automotive electronics designers approach power management (PM) more like their mobile industry counterparts.
While it may seem a fringe concern, the burgeoning security, convenience, connectivity, safety, and infotainment features of tomorrow’s vehicles will drive design and component choices that address standby power consumption. Despite sizable batteries in vehicles, there are still corner-case risks of premature battery exhaustion due to light driving habits and car electronics that “sleep only lightly”. Just as cabin illumination from an open car door could drain a battery overnight, too many stealthy electronics nibbling at the reservoir can pose a similar risk.
Grandma Duck’s car from Donald Duck comic comes to life
At one time leader in electric car manufacturer renowned Detroit Electric, the company came to life after 70 years of silence in 2008.
Now, the company will present the New York Auto Show in a sporty two-seater electric car
The company came to be known at the time that all know, Grandma Duck’s car is an electric vehicle and its model is specifically Detroit Electric’s electric car.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/autot/2013032216815546_au.shtml
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Beat the automotive data-net bottleneck with new ICs, topologies
http://www.edn.com/design/automotive/4411145/Beat-the-automotive-data-net-bottleneck-with-new-ICs–topologies
Today’s automotive designers have an opportunity wrapped in a major challenge: customers want more connectivity and graphics – and are apparently willing to pay for it.
If they have learned to live with and, in fact, love those multiple screens in their home and office environment, why should they also not want the same in their mobile automotive world?
The reality is that this sort of connectivity and display has gone from being “nice to have” to “must have” with today’s younger buyers. It doesn’t matter if you call it infotainment, smart driver interface, networked vehicle, vehicle connectivity via the cloud, or anything else: it’s becoming a standard accessory on all but the low-end vehicles.
But there’s a technical problem. Issues which are manageable in the fixed home/office situation are very different in the automotive world. Supporting multiple screens is not just matter of computing “horsepower”. It also brings complex cabling, connectors, power dissipation, and signal integrity concerns – all of which are at a premium and severely constrained in the automotive world.
The obvious solution of using large, standard PC cables and interfaces such as HDMI will not work, for several reasons.
Instead of 19 wires of the HDMI cable, this interface backbone requires just one four-wire cable, with differential signaling via two pairs, arranged as a “star quad” with 100Ω nominal impedance. The 1-Gbps APIX link was introduced in 2007,
and has been proven effective and reliable.
the second-generation AIPX2 reaches 3 Gbps
AIPX2 is not just a speculative concept it is being used in automobiles on the road today. It was demonstrated at Electronica in November 2012 by Inova at Analog Devices’ booth, where it transmitted two uncompressed high-definition video streams, multi-channel audio, and 100Mbits/s Ethernet data over a single 4-wire, shielded, twisted-pair cable.
APIX2 continuously transmits data in frames – micro data packages – and supports video, audio, and bus protocol formats in what are called data containers.
The net data rate for APIX2 is 2.8 Gbps (downlink) and 187.5 Mbps (uplink)
The constant serial stream of the APIX2 approach provides an even spread of the energy spectrum, with overall emission levels well below permitted maximums.
From Hand-Cranked Maps to the Cloud: Charting the History of In-Car Navigation
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/04/history-in-car-navigation/
If you hate red-light cameras, you’ll really hate speeding ticket robots
Four academics conduct an “experiment in the law as algorithm.”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/hate-red-light-cameras-youll-really-hate-speeding-ticket-robots/
Imagine a world where all violations of the law were enforced by a machine. There are some laws that most citizens would likely want 100 percent enforcement on, such as violent crimes.
“The law gives you wiggle room in the area of discretion after the fact,” Hartzog added. “There’s law on the books and law on the street.”
The study suggests that an automated, machine-driven system of law enforcement—even for something as simple as speeding tickets—may not be desirable.
The High Cost of Losing Your Keys
Key Technology Has Advanced and So Have Replacement Costs
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/the-high-cost-of-losing-your-keys.html
Our car keys have an uncanny ability to get lost inside coat pockets or underneath couch cushions — or to disappear altogether. Prior to the 1990s, this wasn’t a big deal. You could get a spare key at any hardware store or locksmith shop, not to mention at the car dealership, of course. But because it was easy to copy a key, it was also easy for a thief to steal your car.
These days, advances in key technology have made vehicles more difficult to steal, but the price has been costlier key replacements.
A basic key will cost about $3 at a locksmith.
A Honda dealership near the Edmunds office charges about $12 for a basic key.
On most modern cars, an electronic key fob (also known as a remote or transmitter) is an integral part of the key set. At the dealership, the cost of replacing an electronic fob can range from $50-$90, depending on the automaker or complexity of the design. All fobs need to be programmed.
Transponder Keys
After the mid- to late-1990s, manufacturers began placing a transponder chip in the plastic head of the key. The chip emits a signal to a receiver in the ignition. If this “immobilizer” detects the wrong signal — meaning that the wrong key is in the ignition — the vehicle will not start.
We checked the price of a basic transponder key on a late-model Ford F-150. The dealership quoted $160 for the key and an additional $75 for the fob. If you go to a locksmith, expect to pay roughly $20-$30 less.
All-in-one laser-cut keys are becoming more popular
from $150-$250
Switchblade keys
This can cost between $200 and $300
With a smart key, there’s no avoiding the dealership for a replacement.
The cost of replacing and reprogramming a smart key can range from $220 on a Nissan Altima up to $400 on an Acura RL.
Who wants a smart meter to track’n'tax your car? Hello, Israel
Avoid the rush hour, avoid higher rates. Oh and something about privacy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/10/israel_tax/
Israel is drafting a tender for smart meters to be mandated in every vehicle in the country, tracking drivers to allow for differential taxation, but only once the privacy issues have been resolved.
The plan is to vary vehicle tax based on usage, so drivers who don’t drive during peak times, or stay out of city centres, get discounted road tax, but the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport are adamant that any solution will have to protect the privacy of drivers who might not want every journey recorded and logged forever.
“Without a full solution to the privacy problem, we cannot even think about implementing the new tax method,” a source in the transportation department told local business site Globes. “We want a system which will not notify Big Brother about where a vehicle is located, but in which the device will make the calculations, and allow the car owner to delete data after use.”
Product How-To: High-quality wireless audio in the car
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4411638/Product-How-To–High-quality-wireless-audio-in-the-car
As the home environment marches towards the reality of wireless connectivity, car drivers and passengers are expecting the same functionality and freedom associated with a wire-free environment. There are two applications where consumers expect to enjoy high-quality audio: The first is streaming content from their smart devices to the head unit, and the second is listening to high-quality audio from their rear-seat entertainment system while watching a movie or playing a game.
Bluetooth, the most ubiquitous of wireless protocols, has the ability to address both these applications but only recently has had the potential to make this possible.
For stereo audio, the A2DP profile mandated codec of SBC (Low Complexity Subband Coding) was used within the Bluetooth transport layer. Unfortunately, at its most popularly used implementation (Bit Pool 32), SBC was only able to reproduce audio quality closer to FM quality (32kHz Fs or 10Hz to 15kHz frequency bandwidth).
Because of these unattractive features, rather than using Bluetooth, automotive manufacturers were forced away from standards-based options to the more inflexible and constraining solutions offered by proprietary vendors such as SCMS’s Kleer. However, as A2DP is set to stay with us for many years OEMs need to think about dealing with current audio-quality issues, rather than looking for alternative solutions.
Happily for all in the design chain, there is now an alternative which will render Bluetooth “fit for purpose” for the automotive sector. The aptX codec has been integrated into various CSR automotive solutions including BC05MM, CSR8311 as well as aftermarket solutions such as CSR8670 and all options readily address both audio quality and latency.
Additionally the aptX codec now enjoys widespread adoption in the smartphone and consumer space, with brands such as Samsung, Apple, Motorola, HTC all adopting the aptX codec for wireless streaming.
Bluetooth is a standard that has been readily adopted by a myriad of consumer electronics manufacturers. Over three billion Bluetooth chips have been sold in the past 10 years. All smartphones and the majority of feature phones and portable media players include Bluetooth as a feature and offer the A2DP profile for wideband stereo audio.
System update – Automobile and avionics applications; Dev tool update; More flash options
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/systems-interface/4410702/System-update—Automobile-and-avionics-applications–Dev-tool-update–More-flash-options
Some recent announcements by Texas Instruments should offer some additional assistance to system developers working on automotive designs. TI’s new reference design for automotive eCall (emergency call) systems is designed to serve as a drop-in solution for eCall designs or provide a scalable foundation for other automotive applications, such as telematics, stolen vehicle tracking and HEV/EV sound generation.
Texas Instruments has also announced that its SafeTI functional safety hardware development process is now certified as suitable for development of ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 compliant components.
Auto sound gets new options
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/automotive-innovation/4411416/Auto-sound-gets-new-options
The driving experience is primarily a solitary one, where the main company that supports minimum distractions to driving is listening to the radio. The music or talk that is produced has been produced and consumed using the same technologies since about the 1940s.
After many decades of a stable technology base, new methods are entering the market, but the challenge is to make them last.
The drivers sound technology in cars is challenging as the driving experience ranges from short trips under five minutes through long trips which can exceed six hours in duration.
The initial solution for in car sound, is still the default on all vehicles – an AM radio.
The issues with AM radio are the sound quality and the continuity of sound.
The upgrade of FM radio improved sound quality and an increase in the variety of content choices, was introduced over 50 years ago.
The radio industry has recently embraced new technologies, and has brought the additional options of HD radio, and Satellite radio to the automobile.
The gold mine in the personalized driving experience is to allow for user selected content in the car. These solutions, that started in the aftermarket, have made their way into the “optional upgrade” marketplace for cars from the OEMs. These include cassette tapes, the thought to be “ubiquitous” eight-track player, CD players, USB/HDD-based media players and the AUX device interface.
Electric power steering is taking control
Electric power steering uses an electric motor to provide directional control without any hydraulic systems
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Electromechanical_Components/Motors_and_Controllers/Electric_power_steering_is_taking_control.aspx
Because it’s gradually replacing traditional hydraulic steering, electric power steering (EPS) is likely to become mainstream within the automotive industry in the near future.
EPS assists in the effort of steering a car that uses mechanical linkage. Through the use of an electric motor directly coupled to either the steering gear or steering column, EPS offers more assistance than hydraulic power steering. Sensors are used to detect the motion and torque of the steering gear or column, and a computer module applies assistive power via the electric motor.
Not only does EPS provide directional control and improve car handling for the driver, it also slightly increases fuel efficiency due to a reduction in parasitic losses.
Slideshow: Porsche Plans Plug-In Hybrid
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1366&doc_id=261782&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
Porsche plans to roll out a powerful plug-in hybrid next year that will accelerate from 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds and hit a top track speed of 167 mph.
Known as the Panamera S E-Hybrid, the new vehicle will be one of raciest hybrids to date, but will nevertheless operate at times without burning gasoline. “It provides a new opportunity for our customers,” Nick Twork, a Porsche spokesman, told Design News. “Someone who drives a short distance to and from work can now do it under full electric power.”
Because the S E-Hybrid won’t be officially announced until the Auto China Show in Shanghai later this month, details on it are still scarce. Porsche said, however, that the vehicle will combine a 95 HP electric motor with a 3.0 liter V6 engine.
California Court Rules It Illegal To Check Maps On Your Phone While Driving
http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130405/02103822591/california-court-rules-it-illegal-to-check-maps-your-phone-while-driving.shtml
For years, we’ve discussed the problematic nature of “distracted driving” laws that seek to outlaw things like talking on your phone or texting while driving.
Anyway, all of that is preamble to a new court ruling in California, found by Orin Kerr, saying that using a mobile phone to check a mapping/GPS program violates the state’s law against distracted driving. The driver had argued that the laws are about talking on a phone and/or texting/surfing the internet, but that clearly using a mapping program should be allowed. The court disagreed, even as it acknowledged some of the oddities of what that meant, and said it’s really the job of the state lawmakers to figure out what they want to do.
The ruling doesn’t totally rule out using a phone’s mapping program, but does suggest it needs to be set up in a manner where it is done handsfree, where the driver does not need to hold or touch the phone. Basically, the ruling suggests that it’s mostly illegal to touch your mobile phone while driving.
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Why Self-Driving Cars Are Still a Long Way Down the Road
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/04/16/1957232/why-self-driving-cars-are-still-a-long-way-down-the-road
“Technology Review has a piece on the reality behind all the hype surrounding self-driving, or driverless, cars.”
Proceed with Caution toward the Self-Driving Car
http://www.technologyreview.com/review/513531/proceed-with-caution-toward-the-self-driving-car/
Completely autonomous vehicles will remain a fantasy for years. Until they’re here, we need technology that enhances human drivers’ abilities rather than making those abilities increasingly obsolete.
despite such progress and the attention surrounding Google’s “self-driving” cars, full autonomy remains a distant destination. A truly autonomous car, one capable of dealing with any real-world situation, would require much smarter artificial intelligence than Google or anyone else has developed. The problem is that until the moment our cars can completely take over, we will need automotive technologies to strike a tricky balance: they will have to extend our abilities without doing too much for the driver.
Carmakers have so far introduced autonomous technology carefully, aware that having too little to worry about behind the wheel can be just as dangerous as having too many distractions.
When implemented correctly, automation quickly feels like just a natural part of driving. In fact, it’s easy to forget that it has been creeping into cars ever since the hand crank was replaced by an automatic starter in 1911.
Many cars can also perform one of the most troublesome driving tasks, parallel parking.
After all, Google has been testing a fleet of almost completely autonomous, or “self-driving,” hybrid cars for some time.
mpressive and touching as this demonstration is, it is also deceptive. Google’s cars follow a route that has already been driven at least once by a human, and a driver always sits behind the wheel, or in the passenger seat, in case of mishap. This isn’t purely to reassure pedestrians and other motorists. No system can yet match a human driver’s ability to respond to the unexpected, and sudden failure could be catastrophic at high speed.
But if autonomy requires constant supervision, it can also discourage it.
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Driver’s preference
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/automotive-innovation/4412338/Driver-s-preference
As the price of cars continues to escalate, they are increasingly being used by more than one person in the household. Adjustable items like mirror and seat positions must now be constantly changed to accommodate multiple drivers. One of the popular OEM options was the electrical adjustment of these items, which significantly reduced the time for driver adjustments.
This has resulted in one of the most popular “upgrade options” for the car being the “convenience package.” This has been a bundle of added motors and switches that provides power seats, heated seats, power mirrors, power windows, adjustable steering wheel along with an increased number of pre-set radio stations for the driver. Some of these “convenience packages” moved to digital motor control and added memory for the “group” of settings. This allows for single-button selection of the preferred positions. This information, however still resides in the car on a per vehicle basis.
The automotive industry is beginning to investigate a next-generation solution that involves a portable device that each driver carries with him. By being on the mobile device, the information now becomes part of the profile once the car can identify the driver. This allows the car to no longer be limited to just a few drivers, as the memory is a one-to-one expansion with drivers having a mobile device.
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How Federal Distracted-Driving Guidelines Will Shape Your Next Phone
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/04/nhtsa-dot-distractions/
Uncle Sam wants automakers to make it impossible for you to text your wife, check Facebook and watch a video while you’re driving — suggestions that could have just as much impact on mobile phone manufacturers as automakers.
The guidelines – and they’re just that, suggestions, not requirements – are laid out in a 281-page report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Transportation, which under the direction of outgoing transportation secretary Ray LaHood have made distracted driving a pet cause.
Distracted driving accounted for 10 percent of all traffic deaths in 2011, when 3,331 people were killed.
Specifically, NHTSA wants automakers to nix the ability to enter text for messaging and internet browsing, disable any kind of video functionality (think Skype, FaceTime and watching the latest Lady Gaga video) and prevent text-based information from being displayed, including web pages, social media content, emails and text messages. Most of these features aren’t available at the moment and some automakers already restrict text input and display while driving, so a lot of these recommendations are future-proofing efforts.
While the safety benefits of ensuring drivers keep their eyes on the road are unassailable, there’s some question about how big of a public health crisis distracted driving is. As the Auto Alliance points out, “NHTSA data indicate that 98% of distraction-related accidents are due to factors other than use of the built-in system.”
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Can EV Batteries Last 20 Years?
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=261882&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily&dfpPParams=ind_184,industry_auto,aid_261882&dfpLayout=article
Lithium-ion batteries for electric cars may last far longer than we’ve been led to believe, a battery expert told the American Chemical Society in a speech this week.
Mikael Cugnet of the French Atomic Energy Commission said current estimates of an eight-year lithium-ion life have been based on accelerated tests that don’t necessarily provide an accurate picture of how long the batteries will really last in electric cars and hybrids. He believes that if managed properly, EV battery packs could operate reliably for 15 years, and possibly as long as 20 years.
“Up to now, researchers have also based their estimates for lithium batteries on prior experience with lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride,” Cugnet said. But he argues that packs made with those materials tend to use less consistent manufacturing processes.
The wrong charging techniques can also shorten a battery’s life. Lithium-ion battery packs need to stay as close as possible to a 50 percent charge, he said, usually going no higher than 80 percent and no lower than 20 percent. Moreover, electric car owners should refrain from doing too many “fast charges,” in which an EV battery can be recharged in under an hour.
“The extrapolation we’ve made from our own tests shows that lithium-ion packs can last 15 or even 20 years,” he said. “It mostly depends on how you charge it and what temperature it operates at.”
Driver’s preference
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/automotive-innovation/4412338/Driver-s-preference
As the price of cars continues to escalate, they are increasingly being used by more than one person in the household. Adjustable items like mirror and seat positions must now be constantly changed to accommodate multiple drivers.
This has resulted in one of the most popular “upgrade options” for the car being the “convenience package.” This has been a bundle of added motors and switches that provides power seats, heated seats, power mirrors, power windows, adjustable steering wheel along with an increased number of pre-set radio stations for the driver. Some of these “convenience packages” moved to digital motor control and added memory for the “group” of settings. This allows for single-button selection of the preferred positions. This information, however still resides in the car on a per vehicle basis.
The automotive industry is beginning to investigate a next-generation solution that involves a portable device that each driver carries with him.
Currently apps are being developed to manage the communication between the mobile device and your car. This will support the the transfer of the positional setup information to the device and also manage the driver identification and download to the vehicle.
M-B tech led cops to Boston suspects’ car
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130429/OEM06/304299963/m-b-tech-led-cops-to-boston-suspects-car#axzz2Rr2fuIAc
Carjacking a Mercedes-Benz M class proved to be a critical mistake for the alleged Boston Marathon bombers. When the driver escaped and called police, officers were able to track the vehicle using the crossover’s factory-installed GPS system.
Mercedes was asked to help find the vehicle using the Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance function on the crossover’s mbrace telematics system.
After authenticating the request, Mercedes turned on the tracking feature, said spokeswoman Donna Boland. “The authorities asked that mbrace be activated and … it was,” she said.
Last week Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Steve Cannon proudly tweeted: “Just found out that our mbrace2 technology in the stolen Mercedes helped locate the Boston terrorists! Thanks to our amazing law enforcement.”
These Headlamps See Past Storms by Shining Light Where the Rain Isn’t
http://gizmodo.com/these-headlamps-see-past-storms-by-shining-light-where-486220736
When you’re driving through a rain or snow storm and you try using your regular headlights or high beams, the light immediately reflects off the falling precipitation back into your face and drastically reduces visibility—hence the advent of low-hanging fog lights. But with these new headlights from Intel and Carnegie Mellon University, both fog lights and rain glare will soon be a thing of the past.
This system utilizes a DLP projector light source, shining a beam splitter onto the road ahead. An attached camera records the position of falling precipitation while tracking algorithms identify and follow objects (read: individual raindrops and snow flakes) within the system’s operating range. By directing the light source to shine everywhere but the pixels that contain objects, the system can throw light through a storm.
Rönkkö’s point of view:
Stop and start the car will not last
ADAC for the most recent error report reveals an interesting point for new cars. Defects is particularly car batteries, as well as stop and start systems.
I do not like it really a miracle. Think for yourself – the car is started every single one of the worst traffic stop after. Power, of course, start a battery, which is a huge stress.
Stop & Start system, again in my opinion anyway, a temporary step to another. Systems of logic limping from time to time, even though the system would not have any problems either.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/autot/2013050216964861_ac.shtml
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