The component/system behind self driving cars
Date: 27/08/2013
Safe driving is excellent coordination between senses, brain and the muscles of human beings, a system which was hard to replace by machines all these years. It is much known fact that 90% of accidents are caused due to driver's fault. When the driver is lacking skills, severely fatigued, multitasking or in the influence of alcohol, the coordination of above said human sub-systems may fail resulting in a crash. Due to advancement in various aspects of electronics engineering, now there is a replacement of such system from electronics for safer driving. Radar, and camera replaces eye, and the powerful embedded computer replaces brain, the physical controls of the vehicle are wire controlled from the embedded computer. This system is designed to work as perfect as good driver. The tough to build parts of electronic system are radar and cameras, which need to be extremely sensitive to the high-speed change of surroundings. Due to advancement in high-frequency radars, it's now possible to identify changing things at a close distance and at faster rate. Here is one such component from leading automotive component maker Delphi.
Delphi has announced the availability of RACam system, radar and camera integrated driver assistance systems, which will be introduced on the new Volvo SPA platform at the end of 2014. This system features radar sensing, vision sensing and data fusion into a single module to enable a full range of active safety functionalities.
"Not only does this integrated sensor fusion system offer drivers an impressive bundle of advanced safety functionalities in their vehicles and help OEMs including Volvo meet new Euro NCAP 5-star ratings, it is also intelligently engineered to be significantly less expensive, lighter and smaller than non-integrated systems to benefit the OEM's overall vehicle design," said Jugal Vijayvargiya, president, Electronics & Safety, Delphi.
Volvo, automotive company known for the safest cars in the has integrated Delphi supplied sensors in Volvo's vehicles. Delphi says Volvo is the only participating car manufacturer in the SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project, which was successfully completed in 2012. The SARTRE road train included a lead truck followed by three Volvo cars (S60, V60 and XC60) driven autonomously at speeds of up to 90 km/h.
Delphi said it is also part of Non Hit Car and Truck project, a Swedish national research program in which Volvo Trucks and Volvo Car Group are developing next generation active safety and automated driving features.
Editorial product rating: **** (outstanding)
