Automotive Engineering International - October 1, 2013 - 6

Editorial

upfront

EDITORIAL
The autonomous race is on
Autonomous-vehicle (aka self-driving car)
technology could be coming to a showroom near you much sooner than anyone
anticipated just a few short years ago.
Google has been a big proponent of the
technology, with some analysts saying
that the Internet giant is doing more research with its fleet of self-driving Toyota
Prius cars than the automotive industry
combined. However, the automakers are
doing their best to catch up in the race to
market.
Technology enablers and demonstrators were featured prominently at the recent 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. Most
OEMs and major suppliers discussed or
displayed their latest wares.
The Volvo Concept Coupé, which
recalled the highly regarded P1800 of the
‘60s and ‘70s, debuted the company’s
new Scalable Product Architecture that
the company is preparing for completely
autonomous driving. Company officials
say the architecture’s autonomous steering technology, to avoid accidents and
make driving more comfortable, will be
introduced in 2014. Volvo Cars’ aim is to
have cars with fully autonomous technology out on the roads before 2020.
On the eve of the Frankfurt show,
Mercedes-Benz Chief Dieter Zetsche
revealed his company’s vision for future
accident-free (autonomous) driving. The
S 500 Intelligent Drive demonstrator had
its first autonomous long-distance drive a
month earlier using what the company
claims are near-production-standard sensor systems. With the drive, MercedesBenz says it is the first automaker to
demonstrate autonomous driving on both
inter-urban and urban routes. Covering
around 100 km from Mannheim to
Pforzheim, the self-driving S-Class had to
deal with traffic lights, roundabouts, pedestrians, and cyclists. The company
emphasized that the demo was achieved
not with extremely expensive special
technology but with near-productionstandard technology very similar to that
already found in the new E and S-Class.
Major suppliers will be a crucial partner in making self-driving cars a reality. At
the Frankfurt show, Bosch, Continental,

6 OCTOBER 1, 2013

Delphi, Valeo, and others demonstrated
a spectrum of technologies on the road
to full automation.
One of the more interesting was
Valeo’s next-generation Park4U automated parking system. The current system, available on the Mercedes E-Class
and S-class and called Park4U with comfort braking, is said by Valeo to be the
first parking assistance system for which
the driver does not need to brake or steer
to get into a space.
The next-generation system shown at
Frankfurt allows a driver to exit a car, at a
store entrance for example, and let it find
a parking space by itself. A remote automated parking app on a smartphone triggers the process. The vehicle can detect
and steer itself automatically to a space
and notify the driver when the process is
complete. Then after shopping, the driver
can use the smartphone app to be
picked up at the store exit. The solution is
enabled by a highly advanced laser scanner (as well as ultrasonic and camera
sensors) to detect obstacles.
How soon will fully autonomous driving be possible? Most auto industry experts believe that the enablers will be in
place for significant time spent enjoying
the luxury by 2020. Some innovators believe the technology will be here sooner.
According to a September report in
the Financial Times, Tesla might be moving ahead of even Google in the race to
build self-driving cars. Cars that can take
over most of the driving from their human
handlers will be ready for the road within
three years, according to Tesla CEO Elon
Musk in the report. However, even Musk
is skeptical that automated driving will be
possible without some driver involvement—at least in the near term. “We
should be able to do 90 per cent of miles
driven within three years,” he said, according to the report. “It’s incredibly hard
to get the last few per cent.”
The autonomous race is on. Let the
jockeying begin for innovation bragging
rights.
Kevin Jost
Editorial Director

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Automotive Engineering International - October 1, 2013

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