Autonomous Vehicles, LEAF and others...

[edatoakrun]

The eyes of the motoring world may be locked firmly on Paris, but it is at the CEATEC Japan 2012 event, also taking place this week, that Nissan has chosen to showcase an exciting new innovation.

During the event it will showcase autonomous driving with the NSC-2015 prototype (pictured), a modified version of the Nissan LEAF.

The car will use a remote monitoring system to recognise the surrounding environment thanks to an all-around view camera and 4G communications. It will be different from a system that uses a GPS to establish a car’s exact location because it will provide precise recognition of the surrounding environment: even when underground.

When the driver exits the NSC-2015 it will start to park itself automatically using instructions from the smartphone. It looks for a vacant parking space, identifies its surroundings and when it finds an open parking space it begins automated parking...

http://www.thegreencarwebsite.co.uk/blo ... s-driving/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nice to have your car pick you up, but the autonomous setting I need today is:

When I am semi-hypermiling driving over 100 miles on a single charge, on that part of the trip on a two lane 55 mph speed limit highway, I spend a lot of effort watching behind me, to try to get those faster-moving vehicles that will overtake me, to be able to immediately pass me at a safe location. Nothing worse than when a vehicle slows down behind you, then goes into zombie mode, and continues to tailgate no matter how slowly (or fast) you drive, presenting a "rolling roadblock" to all other vehicles behind them.

So, after I spot a vehicle gaining on me from behind, I try to speed up or slow down to put that vehicle in just the right passing location, and at just the right speed differential (10-15 mph) so they will (almost always) make an immediate safe passing maneuver, at their own speed. Once you have a clear view behind you, you are free to (safely, without inconveniencing other drivers) minimize regen use ( to maximize efficiency) by allowing yourself some speed variable, ~42 to~50 mph in my case, on steep descents on this 55 mph speed limit highway.

Sadly, I may have a vehicle with a hypermiling-interaction-with-other-vehicle-autonomous-driving-program, before I have the fast charge locations on this highway, that would make the feature unnecessary...

9/21/13 edit. Title changed from "Nissan to introduce prototype" to "Autonomous driving LEAF, and the implications for BEVs."

12/24/16 edit: Title changed to "Autonomous vehicles, LEAF and others..."

[GeekEV]

Let's get the current issues under control first...

[garygid]

One might wonder if it will read the "no parking this block on school days from 1 to 3:30 PM"
signs that are a block away, and understand what to do about it.

[AndyH]

One might wonder if it will read the "no parking this block on school days from 1 to 3:30 PM"
signs that are a block away, and understand what to do about it.

The car probably won't read the sign, but I'm sure either Otto or Johnny will have it covered.





(I'll bet there'll be a solution to the sign problem - maybe a transponder on the sign, a 'dog fence' wire in the road, or RF marker in the curb - along with data in the mapping system.)

[DaveinOlyWA]

One might wonder if it will read the "no parking this block on school days from 1 to 3:30 PM"
signs that are a block away, and understand what to do about it.

google; yes

apple; maybe next year

[edatoakrun]

Another article with video:

http://insideevs.com/watch-the-self-dri ... elf-drive/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The real benefit in self-driving BEVs IMO, will be had if this feature can be combined with inductive charging.

This will not only provide BEV drivers "valet service" but, by allowing the development of well-located park-and-charge lots, will provide the only practical solution to ICE-ing and PHEV-ing of slow-charge spaces. Access to chargers could be limited only to charging EVs, after which the car could move on to a no-charging space, opening up access to the charger for another car.

Vehicles without the ability to charge, and drive away after charging is completed, could be denied access to the entire parking lot or structure.

[EVDRIVER]

Because the NAV system is so advanced already

[edatoakrun]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... xHcJTs2Sxk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stanford's self-driving Audi TTS, Shelley, hit 120 mph on a recent track test. Combined with new research on professional drivers' brain activity, the car's performance could get even better.

Related article: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/augu ... 81312.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think I'll be able trust my BEV to drop me off in front of my destination, drive to the local charge station, park itself after the desired SOC is reached, and pick me up later on request...

[edatoakrun]

Good comment, IMO, on how the human tendency to resist change, and not any technical barrier, is the greatest obstacle in the way of the self-driving car.

Horseless Carriages to Driverless Cars

Google co-founder SergeyBrin predicts self-driving cars will be a technical reality within five years.

...The largely self-driving car is no longer just a vision, thanks to rapid advances in lasers, radar, GPS and mapping databases. If it weren't for fear among innovators of getting too far ahead of U.S. laws and regulations, there would already be cars on the road doing almost as much driving as humans.

California, Nevada and Florida made it legal to operate self-driving cars on public roads two years ago. Google's GOOG +1.05%fleet has since traversed more than 435,000 miles in cities and on highways without causing an accident. Still, regulators are nervous. During congressional hearings in May, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W. Va.) cited the possibility of cyberattacks: "Can some 14-year-old in Indonesia figure out how to do this and just shut your car down?"...

..It's natural that people are nervous about self-driving cars. Horseless carriages, as the first cars were called, also took time to be accepted. Consider this account of a first drive, from a magazine called The Horseless Age, in 1897:

"There is a sense of incompleteness about it. You seemed to be sitting on the end of a huge pushcart, propelled by an invisible force and guided by a hidden hand. There is also a seeming brazenness to the whole performance. I dreamed once that I walked down Fifth Avenue in my pajamas in the full tide of the afternoon promenade, and I almost died with shame before I awoke. Yesterday I had something of the same feeling as I sat there and felt myself pushed forward into the very face of a grinning, staring and sometimes jeering New York. But it wore away after a while. Gradually I felt that I did not need the protection of a horse in front of me."

The same issue of the magazine included a report of a Massachusetts law legalizing the horseless carriage, but only if "so constructed and its novelties so covered and hid as not to be liable to frighten horses on the highway by its novel appearance." An editorial criticized this as overregulation: "Bicycles, locomotives, wheelbarrows, brass bands and a hundred other things have frightened horses and brought death to many, but we do not, on that account, banish those things from the streets."...

There are many issues to be solved before fully self-driving cars are available, but the technical issues may be the easiest to resolve. Legal uncertainty, including about liability for accidents, is more vexing.

There is enormous potential in terms of safety and reduced travel time if we can manage to graduate from horseless carriages to driverless cars. The shift away from humans being fully in control will take time, but if governments don't stand in the way of innovation, we will some day look back on people driving cars being as quaint as horses powering our transportation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... ns_opinion" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Nubo]

You can have my steering wheel when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

The enamoring of self-driving cars seems to be based on the flawed idea that conga lines of tailgating cars are the answer to traffic woes, when in fact they are the cause.