New ideas for in-car driver assistance systems could aid in the prevention of accidents caused by people dozing off at the wheel. Updated GPS systems were shown alongside new traffic control products and low emissions vehicles. Safety, environmental awareness, and efficiency seemed to be the focus of the newly released products.
Spot Services showed an innovative way to render pedestrian crosswalks safer. Ultra bright LED lights encased in space-age plastic enclosures are embedded in the road at crosswalks and when a person pushes the crosswalk button, the lights blink brightly and alert drivers of the pedestrian.
“They are flush with the road so they will stay when snowplows go over them” said Spot Services Specialist Michael Reynolds. “They can be solar or AC powered and our products are internet enabled and have GPS so every user, military bases, hospitals, schools, etc, will have a password and they can remotely adjust the settings to their personal needs.” Some systems are motion activated depending how much the customer wants to pay.
The Volkswagen Group (Audi, Volkswagen, Bentley, and Bugatti) displayed a hydro-electric hybrid SUV. The only emissions coming from this vehicle are droplets of water. “This is a fuel cell motor, it has a membrane inside that separates molecular hydrogen into atomic hydrogen” said engineer Suhrid Bhat, “This reaction is what powers the vehicle.”
“The Technology is expensive,” Bhat warned, “We’re not releasing the exact numbers to the outside… The car also uses batteries to assist during acceleration just like a gasoline hybrid.”
Mercedes Benz took the idea of how a human uses their eyes and put it in a self-driving car. Two cameras that see in 3D are placed on either side of the car. A screen is placed next to the car that displays what the car is seeing. The cars computer reacts more quickly than a human, braking or steering out of trouble. It can see which direction an object is moving, how fast it was moving, and what the probability of striking the object is.
Another company called Aldis claimed to have found a way to increase the flow of traffic and decrease carbon emissions at the same time. Their invention is a camera with a 360 degree view that is placed at an intersection.
The camera is designed to efficiently control traffic by determining the position and flow of traffic at intersections. The camera, they said, would relay traffic information to a host computer which determines what each object is and where it is located. The computer can keep a red light on longer for a moving truck (which uses more fuel and holds up traffic more during acceleration) without enough space to stop or for a pedestrian who has not completely crossed to road. The camera can see approximately 600 feet in every direction.
