February 2001
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February 2001 |
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Industry Snippets:
February 2001 |
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Gehring
Joins GM Washington Office Steve Gehring, formerly Advanced Vehicle Control Systems lead at ITS America and key to that organization's ramp-up for the IVI program, has accepted a position with General Motors in their Washington office, working in the safety area. For the last last two years, he has been with the Washington office of Mazda. [Top] ISA
Advocates Hail EU Action on Speed Limiters A "Construction Requirement" for Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) systems draft proposal was agreed in Geneva earlier this month to support regulation action by the European Union. ISA is a simple application that keeps the driver in the loop while enabling a speed limiting function (the driver can choose to enable or disable at will). The draft proposal does not preclude automatic speed limiting and does not address this area at all. This move is seen by ISA advocates as simply a "starter" and, if adopted, could actually force this function into the market -- at which point the degree of public support would be tested directly at the consumer level. [Top]
The new Renault Laguna II, entering the European market this month, represents Renault's joining the "ACC club" by including Adaptive Cruise Control. As a new innovation on the European market, the Laguna's ACC also has a built-in speed limiter (with speed set by the driver). Other classic high-tech features on this station wagon include keyless entry, a GPS-based Carminat navigation system, and anti-theft technologies. [Top] Autoliv
Produces New Rollover Sensors Autoliv, a Swedish automotive supplier with offices in the Detroit area, announced that it is producing new rollover sensors to be installed in over one million North American vehicles starting with the 2004 model year. The sensor measures initial vehicle speed, lateral and vertical acceleration, and roll velocity; rollovers are detected through algorithms that take into account all of these factors. The unit provides the measurement fast enough for safety countermeasures to be activated for the occupants prior to their impacting the vehicle interior. [Top] Future
Vehicle Antennas Under Development in the UK The UK's Foresight Vehicle program (supported by the Department of Trade and Industry) is sponsoring a project called Future Antenna Technology for Cars and Trucks (FATCAT1). The feasibility and early designs of future antennas for vehicles are being examined. Partners are Marconi Research Centre, University of Birmingham, and BSH Industries. According to information supplied by Foresight, the project is examining 63 GHz antenna designs to enable vehicles to communicate with each other to form co-operative platoons, to use collision avoidance systems, and to alert drivers to maneuvers by other vehicles. The antenna designs are also expected to support vehicle-roadside communications. Challenges are to realize all-around coverage, handle safety-critical messaging, be low cost, and conform to car styling. The project has so far succeeded in identifying candidate antenna designs and work is continuing with an additional partner, Panorama Antennas, for FATCAT2. Further information can be found at www.foresightvehicle.org.uk. [Top] Lane
Keeping on the Market in Japan Nissan has introduced their Lane Keeping System on the new Cima in Japan. The Cima is equivalent to the Infiniti Q45 model in the US. System operation is limited to straight-ish road segments on freeways. See related IVsource article this month. [Top]
FMCSA
Announces Latest Management Appointments Steve Barber has recently been appointed Associate Administrator for Research, Technology, and Information Management at the USDOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Mr. Barber was part of the USDOT delegation to Japan in December. Within this area, John MacGowan has been appointed Director of the Office of Research and Technology. MacGowan has extensive management experience in the area of driver assistance systems, as his division at FHWA research conducted the Automated Highway Systems research during the nineties and he was instrumental in establishing the current USDOT IVI program. Technology is also getting a boost in the field, as the Administration has established a technology leader in each of its four regional operating units. An overview of the organization appears below, courtesy of FMCSA.
[Top] Motor
Freight Carriers Association Looking at User Acceptance of Technologies At a recent meeting of the ITS America Commercial Vehicle Operations committee, Bill Rogers, the vice president for Safety and Technology at the Motor Freight Carriers Association (MFCA), gave an overview of his organization and its views on technology. The MFCA is the national trade association for the unionized less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. The Association has six members. One of its prime functions is to negotiate the Master Freight Agreement between its members and the Teamsters Union. As such, it is aware that good labor-management relations is a key to success. In total its membership represents about 16 percent of the total motor carrier industry. In the area of ITS/CVO, MFCA is most concerned about user acceptance of technologies. The Association is in favor of technologies that increase efficiency/safety, but they believe strongly that the decision on which technologies are deployed on trucks should remain with each individual carrier. Currently, the Association is participating in a test of the Eaton-VORAD collision avoidance systems. When asked about the implications of an aging workforce on the current driver shortage in the industry, Mr. Rogers stated that this is a main area of concern. Typically 40-50 percent of the Association's members' drivers are eligible for retirement. Should regulatory changes (i.e. hours-of-service regulations) motivate these individuals to retire, the existing driver shortage will be greatly exacerbated. (The next meeting of the ITS America CVO committee will be held April 10-12 in Lexington, Ky. See the IVsource calendar.) [Top] Japan's
National Police Agency (NPA) Suspicious of Stop-n-Go NPA officials in
Japan have said that they object to stop-and-go Adaptive Cruise Control, citing
concerns that such systems may cause cars to hit pedestrians on busy city
streets. But, they acknowledge, if these systems can solidly
distinguish between highway and non-highway situations, then these types of
systems are seen as acceptable for highway use. [Top] BMW
Institutes New Decision-Making Approach for Driver Assistance Products Thomas Bachman of BMW tells IVsource that he is now their "innovation manager" and part of the council that charts telematics and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems development to develop product introduction roadmaps and strategy. Because the council will make budget decisions for research and product development, this constitutes a strongly focused approach to product development. [Top] INVENT
succeeds MOTIV in Germany MOTIV, the domestic German government-industry program for pre-competitive research in driver assistance systems, completed its course prior to 2001 and a new program has evolved for the same purpose to continue the work. It is called INVENT and BMW, DaimlerChrysler, and Volkswagen are all among the major participants. The BMW contact is Dr. Karl Naab at Naab@bmw.de. [Top] At the Safe Highways conference in January, Phil Pettit of the UK's DERA (formerly exclusively a defense-focused agency) announced that they are spinning off 19,000 staff into private sector to pursue civilian-based research and product development. He has responsibility to bring in new business in ADAS, which is a major business target area. [Top] |
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Copyright 2001: IVsource.net and Richard Bishop Consulting (RBC). All Rights Reserved. |
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February 2001 |
