i3 - March/April 2019 - 27

Previous Page: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Clockwise from left: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesDavid McNew/AFP/Getty Images, Courtesy of Mercedes- Benz, Kyodo News via Getty Images.

Kia imagined a time after self-driving cars are standard fare, building upon
its "Beyond Autonomous Driving" exhibit at CES last year. This year's "Space of
Emotive Driving" exhibit included the R.E.A.D. (Real-time Emotion Adaptive
Driving) System, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to sense a driver's emotional state through facial expressions, heart rate and electrodermal activity, and
then tailors the vehicle's cabin environment accordingly. Kia also displayed its
SEED Car concept, a four-wheel hybrid electric cycle (requiring some pedaling
by the "driver") with a range of 62 miles. It's housed within the automaker's
BIRD Car, a self-driving shuttle vehicle that releases the SEED Car to complete
the journey once it travels within a 100-kilometer range of its destination. Kia
figures the pairing to be an example of next-generation smart city mobility.
Mercedes-Benz premiered its new CLA (A-Class) Coupe, which features
an update to the MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience) human-machine
interface (HMI) that the automaker debuted at CES last year. A new MBUX
Interior Assistant recognizes in-air hand gestures in bright sunlight and
complete darkness to control vehicle functions displayed on the car's indash display screen, according to the active menu. It activates as soon as a
hand approaches the touchscreen in the dashboard or the touchpad on the
center console and can distinguish between the driver's hand and the front
passengers to let the vehicle know whose seat needs the massage function
turned on, for example. The CLA arrives in U.S. dealerships early this year.
More, Mercedes celebrated the U.S. premiere of its new EQC electric crossover SUV at CES, which will go on sale in 2020.
Nissan revealed Invisible-to-Visible or I2V, a future technology of Nissan
Intelligent Mobility, the automaker's umbrella term for devising new ways to
power cars. I2V merges information from sensors outside and inside the vehicle with data from the cloud, empowering the vehicle to anticipate what's ahead
and provide the driver or passengers with guidance, given by a human-like
avatar that appears to be inside with them. Real people outside the vehicle also
can be conveyed inside the vehicle through a "virtual world" - to what Nissan
names the vehicle's Metaverse - where they appear as three-dimensional AR
avatars to provide assistance. But the Metaverse is not a full virtual reality
experience, which would be
dangerous to use while driving, Nissan assures. Also, to
be realized, I2V will require
5G connectivity, Nissan says.
Toyota brought forth
Guardian, an ADAS prototype that is "about amplifying rather than replacing
human ability ... about correcting for human mistakes
and human weaknesses
and assisting the most vulnerable people at both ends
of the age spectrum, where
far too many lives are lost,"
said Dr. Gill Pratt, CEO of
the Toyota Research
Institute in Lexington, MA,
at Toyota's CES 2019 press
conference. Guardian incorAutomotive technology
porates a new technology
on display at CES 2019
that TRI calls Blended
C TA . t e c h / i 3

Envelope Control, which has the car "collaborate" with the human driver in a dangerous situation "at the edge of a dynamically
changing safety envelope" in "a seamless
blend of both human and machine working
together as teammates," Pratt said. It's unlike
traditional ADAS systems, which take over
total control of the vehicle from a driver in
such situations. But Guardian can also "act
as a redundant check" in a fully self-driving
(Level 5 autonomous) car, like a belt and
suspenders, Pratt added. So, he also presented Guardian for All, which opens the
technology for adoption by other automakers. He also unveiled TRI's newest technology testing platform, the P4 Research
Vehicle - a sensor-clad Lexus LS500H
hybrid-electric sedan - which joins the
organization's test fleet this spring.
"It can process sensor inputs faster and
react more quickly to the surrounding environment" than earlier TRI test vehicles, Pratt
said, and thus will accelerate the development of both Guardian and TRI's Level 4 and
5 self-driving car technologies, which are
called Chauffer. "We think that the important benefit of automated driving is not actually about the autonomy of cars," Pratt
declared. "It's about the autonomy of people.
It's about saving as many lives as we can, as
soon as we can, and making the experience
of driving more fun as we make it safer."

MARCH/APRIL 2019

i3 - March/April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - March/April 2019