Part 5 - Where is here anyway?

Now seems to be a good time to have a look at where some manufacturers are at the moment.

As always money talks, so we will start at the top end of town where development usually starts and then flows down.

Mercedes 2016/17 E-Class, Teslas, Volvo, BMW and Audi are probably the closest we are yet to fully autonomous vehicles but I would suggest that Mercedes probably leads the field in mature tested technology.

 The new Mercedes E Class offers adaptive cruise control, keeping the correct distance from the vehicle in front and adjusting speed accordingly.

Interestingly, "speed limit pilot" doesn't rely on maps or GPS to determine the correct speed but actually reads the road signs and adjusts speed accordingly.

"Steering pilot" uses other vehicle and buildings to determine correct position when no lane markings are present.

Cross traffic detection at intersections with auto braking if the driver doesn't respond.

A real life saver is the detection of a hazard at the tail end of traffic where there is no room to maneuver and can brake earlier and avoid accidents totally and automatically up to 70 Kph in that situation.

Evasive active steering where a driver swerves the vehicle it can detect the hazard such as a pedestrian and control the direction and speed allowing easier recovery.

"Remote parking pilot" allows the car to park itself and get itself out and ready to go when requested from a phone app.

Vehicle to infrastructure or vehicle to vehicle communications (V2X) will be built in to the new series and accessed via mobile phone so events ahead such as collisions or roadworks can be known in advance.

Auto lane change is another feature. When the driver puts on the indicator to change lanes the vehicle checks if it is clear to do so and if safe will change lanes. At this point it isn't clear if it reads the road markings or uses look ahead radar to determine the legality and safety of the maneuver or relies on the driver's skill to determine that but it will detect oncoming vehicles or overtaking vehicles from behind and will execute the maneuver only when safe.

In compliance with the current laws in most countries it insists on the driver having hands on the wheel ready to assume control and if it doesn't detect that, it slows to a controlled halt.

In Nevada in the US Mercedes claims to have the first autonomous testing license plate for a full production vehicle.

These are just some of the safety features as we are primarily interested in the autonomous side. Luxury is of course way up there and the tech isn't visible apart from the configurable dash display screens, which is a good thing in a luxury car.

Tesla S. This is the newer kid on the block, an electric sports car with all the bells and whistles with a price tag to match.
Electric cars are the path to the future and in this regard Tesla has a distinct edge with its tech and with 0-100 Kph in 3 seconds it also has a lot of fans.

Autopilot, as Tesla calls their automation allows lane holding, lane change with indicator activation, adaptive cruise control, ESC and auto braking. It can also scan for parking space and parallel park.

These features are updated by software.

These are already on the road in Australia and are being tested using autonomous mode as most people would if they had access to them:

 Audi has  lot of technology in their concept vehicles and have done a lot of testing but their driver assist features appear to be more in the range of warning systems rather than direct action. That is it tells the driver rather than taking control directly.

From what I can gather they are taking a more transitional approach, that is building in the tech but not yet enabling it until the laws change and focusing more on the driver being warned rather than assisted.

 It appears that traffic jam control is a standard feature but prompts for driver control once the jam is cleared and speed increases. Probably a more conservative approach than some others.

Volvo, long know for driver safety has stated that by 2020 no one will be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car or SUV.

They are really really serious about safety and so confident in their technology for autonomous vehicles that they are the first that I know of to put their money where their mouth is:

Volvo CEO: We will accept all liability when our cars are in autonomous mode.

This of course is one of the big questions looming over the widespread use of autonomous vehicles, who has liability in the event of a collision?
But if you consider that in the long term there will be a huge reduction in the number of collisions then it starts to make economic sense for the manufacturers to wear this, but more of that in a later article.

As stated in an earlier blog, Volvo will have 100 autonomous cars on the road in normal drivers hands (or not if in autonomous mode but I digress) in the "Drive me" project in Gothenberg commencing in 2017 utilising Volvos IntelliSafe Autopilot-equipped XC90s.

This a fairly useful test as they will be used daily on commuter routes that will be at average speeds of 70 Kph. This daily use in real world conditions will go a long way to gaining acceptance of these vehicles on the road. The story on Volvos web site makes interesting reading and lays out their reasoning and why they want to do this now.

My read in this blog on the level of automation is derived from what information is available publicly, and the level of  automation on the road already in production vehicles. Industryweek.com had a summary of a report from navigant research in October 2015, based on not only current but future potential and is based on this criteria:

The analysis looked at the strategy and execution of autonomous vehicle technology for 18 automakers. The OEMs were rated on 12 criteria: vision, go-to market strategy, partnerships, production strategy, technology, geographic reach, sales, marketing and distribution, product capability, product quality and reliability, product portfolio, pricing and company commitment.

The full article is available but at a cost but the above is a summary that shows the relative rankings.

Obviously more detail than I have access to and makes a good read.

Interestingly Honda, Toyota and General Motors from mid price range manufacturers are all touted as possible leaders in this technology in the near future.

If nothing shiny comes along to distract me, next week I will look at the cars aimed at the average car owner.

Until then.