Autonomous Vehicles, LEAF and others...

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edatoakrun

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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...
Click to expand...

http://www.thegreencarwebsite.co.uk/blog/index.php/2012/10/02/nissan-to-introduce-autonomous-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..."
 
garygid said:
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.
Click to expand...
The car probably won't read the sign, but I'm sure either Otto or Johnny will have it covered. :lol:

Airplane-autopilot.jpg


images


(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.)
 
garygid said:
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.
Click to expand...

google; yes

apple; maybe next year
 
Another article with video:

http://insideevs.com/watch-the-self-driving-leaf-self-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.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YxHcJTs2Sxk" 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/august/shelley-autonomous-car-081312.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Click to expand...

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...
 
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.
Click to expand...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324399404578585471713734296.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
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.
 
Nubo said:
You can have my steering wheel when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. ;)...
Click to expand...

Relax.

I'm sure your vehicle will still be equipped with all that is necessary to keep you happy...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QE-tRzLYL.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
edatoakrun said:
Nubo said:
You can have my steering wheel when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. ;)...
Click to expand...

Relax.

I'm sure your vehicle will still be equipped with all that is necessary to keep you happy...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QE-tRzLYL.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Click to expand...
You will still have a choice. It's just that your insurance premiums may skyrocket if you choose to drive old-school, which actuaries will no doubt determine to be a high risk factor compared to automated navigation.
 
edatoakrun said:
...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.
Click to expand...
It is annoying. But I've realized that if I can overcome the annoyance factor, the zombie may be doing me a favor: creating a buffer between my LEAF and even more serious problem drivers, those who race up behind vehicles in the slow lane at dangerous speeds, brake abruptly and pass, impatiently and suddenly, without carefully assessing the traffic conditions.

The zombie driver behind me becomes the target for those madmen, and bears the risk of their rage and recklessness. Long live the zombies!
 
This will also allow BEVs to "go searching for spots in public (BEV charge stations) as well", which could, IMO, dramatically alter the hardware requirements of public charger stations, as autonomous charging replaces the human factor in "plugging in", just like it will in driving.

Nissan helping organize autonomous vehicle meet up sessions
Nissan’s goal is to be part of the fast growing trend of making vehicles autonomous. NHTSA recently stepped up to help the discussion by providing levels of automation so that vehicles that are being released to the market now can at least be categorized. For example, the current BMW X5 was recently released and it can basically drive itself in traffic. Coming Cadillac models can do the same thing, but on highways. Volvo now has technology that allows drivers to exit their vehicle, and the vehicle will then park, eliminating valets, but also making it possible to extend that vision to include cars that go searching for spots in public areas as well. It will not be long before one vehicle with all these technologies is available for sale.

Nissan's Driving Innovation discussion groups have a meet up like structure and will also be available in podcast form. The goal is to be part of the growing autonomous vehicle world...

Nissan is moving into the Silicon Valley community to try to keep current with autonomous vehicle development and build partnerships with the companies and the community that will make them a reality. To keep the dialogue moving forward Nissan is hosting and attending Meet Ups every other month. It will also post a podcast for those who could not make the meeting, and the general public is welcome to view it as well...
Click to expand...

http://www.torquenews.com/1083/nissan-helping-organize-autonomous-vehicle-meet-sessions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
The story below explains why humans, as drivers or pilots, are already obsolescent.

Once people get used to passing driverless trucks on the freeway, trucks which never tailgate or speed, and are only very rarely seen blocking traffic on the freeway following an accident (in which the occupants of a smaller passenger vehicle have been squashed) I don't think vehicle manufacturers will have much difficulty selling vehicles with self-driving capabilities for their personal use.


Daddy, What Was a Truck Driver?

Over the Next Two Decades, the Machines Themselves Will Take Over the Driving.

And then one day, man went the way of the mule.

Some 5.7 million Americans are licensed as professional drivers, steering the country's vast fleets of delivery vans, UPS trucks and tractor-trailers.

Over the next two decades, the driving will slowly be taken on by the machines themselves. Drones. Robots. Autonomous trucks. It's already happening in a barren stretch in Australia, where Caterpillar Inc. CAT +2.62%will have 45 self-directed, 240-ton mining trucks maneuvering at an iron-ore mine.

Most of the hubbub around autonomous technology has focused on passenger vehicles, notably Google's GOOG +0.69%promotional wonder, the Google Car. Ford Motor Co. F +4.31%Chairman Bill Ford Jr. says self-driving cars will hit roads by 2025. But commercial uses are where the real money and action lie: rewiring a massive part of the U.S. economy while removing tens of billions in costs from a commercial fleet that today numbers 253 million trucks.

Ubiquitous, autonomous trucks are "close to inevitable," says Ted Scott, director of engineering and safety policy for the American Trucking Associations. "We are going to have a driverless truck because there will be money in it," adds James Barrett, president of 105-rig Road Scholar Transport Inc. in Scranton, Pa.

Economic theory holds that such basic changes will, over time, improve standards of living by making us more productive and less wasteful. An idle truck with a sleeping driver is, after all, just a depreciating asset.

But watching a half-decade of lagging U.S. employment, it's hard not to feel a swell of fear for those 5.7 million people, a last bastion of decent blue-collar pay.

A world without truck drivers may eventually be a better one. But for whom?

At least better for trucking-company owners, who today grapple with driver shortages of as much as 15%, in addition to perennial hassles of fuel costs, regulations and crummy margins. "Holy s—," exclaims Kevin Mullen, the safety director at ADS Logistics Co., a 300-truck firm in Chesterton, Ind. "If I didn't have to deal with drivers, and I could just program a truck and send it?"

Roughly speaking, a full-time driver with benefits will cost $65,000 to $100,000 or more a year. Even if the costs of automating a truck were an additional $400,000, most owners would leap at the chance, they say.

"There would be no workers' compensation, no payroll tax, no health-care benefits. You keep going down the checklist and it becomes pretty cheap," ...
Click to expand...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324144304578624221804774116.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
well, I guess it would be too much to hope for but still looking forward to the day when I just open my LEAF app on the phone and command it to go charge up somewhere near by while I am working or shopping and then return to pick me up. I guess those inductive charging stations need to be available
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
...I guess those inductive charging stations need to be available
Click to expand...

I wonder if inductive charging will actually be that useful in ~20 years.

Once you have a car with the ability to precisely locate itself (once the human driver is out of the picture) does inductive charging still have any real benefits?

I would expect most BEVs will just have a single DC charge port, probably accessible from beneath the car, which could be used by your home or public charger, to charge at whatever kW your BEV orders, up to the maximum rate available.

Your BEV drops you off, then drives on (as directed) to locate itself precisely over the desired charger's DC plug.

The charger is signaled by your BEV, plugs into your port, and then delivers the kW and total kWh you ordered.

If at a public charger, once charging is completed, the BEV will move on to its directed destination.

Minimum cost, weight, and complexity imposed on the BEV.

Maximum commonality of charger standards.

And no opportunity for the humans to screw up, by misusing, breaking, ICEing, PHEVing, or BEVing the chargers.
 
edatoakrun said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
...I guess those inductive charging stations need to be available
Click to expand...

I wonder if inductive charging will actually be that useful in ~20 years...


...Minimum cost, weight, and complexity imposed on the BEV.

Maximum commonality of charger standards.

And no opportunity for the humans to screw up, by misusing, breaking, ICEing, PHEVing, or BEVing the chargers.
Click to expand...

how can a physical plug provide maximum commonality unless the car manufacturer is willing to comply?

how would a physical plug be less likely to break than inductive waves? just because a machine inserts the plug does not mean that wear and tear is not going to be an issue. eventually that mechanical arm will break and someone will have to fix it. but guessing an inductive system with no moving parts might last a bit longer
 
Watch the video interview with Andy Palmer at the first link below:

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced that the company will be ready with multiple, commercially-viable autonomous drive (AD) vehicles by 2020. Nissan said that its engineers have been carrying out intensive research on the technology for years, alongside teams from universities including MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Tokyo.

Work is already underway in Japan to build a dedicated autonomous driving proving ground, to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2014. Nissan says that its autonomous driving will be achieved at realistic prices for consumers. The goal is availability across the model range within two vehicle generations after introduction.


In 2007 I pledged that—by 2010—Nissan would mass-market a zero-emission vehicle. Today, the Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric vehicle in history. Now I am committing to be ready to introduce a new ground-breaking technology, Autonomous Drive, by 2020, and we are on track to realize it.

—CEO Carlos Ghosn


Nissan is demonstrating the breadth of the capability of its autonomous drive technology for the first time at Nissan 360, a test drive and stakeholder interaction event being held in Southern California. Laser scanners, Around View Monitor cameras, as well as advanced artificial intelligence and actuators, have been installed in Nissan...
Click to expand...
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/08/20130828-ad.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And by the time All Nissan BEV are self-driving, they all may also be self-(not)-plugging.

Nissan Motor Co. says it will expand its global EV product line to five models.

The company has not announced what additional models it is planning and has not specified a timetable. But it indicates Nissan is taking a long-term view of the slow-growing EV market.

"We haven't announced what models they will be, but we have plans for five," Carla Bailo, senior vice president for R&D at Nissan Americas, told reporters. "The others will come in due time."

Bailo said future Nissan-brand EVs will use inductive charging. Inductive chargers enable an EV owner to park on top of a charging mat to recharge a battery wirelessly without hooking up a connector.

"Once that technology is ready, we will use it across our brands," she said after her presentation...
Click to expand...

http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/2013/08/nissan-to-expand-ev-lineup-to-5-models.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IMO, the synergy between self-driving and self-fueling will probably combine to deliver the headshot that finally takes out our zombie ICEV infrastructure.
 

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