System will see 'around the corner'
FRANKFURT -- In the wake of its new partnership with IBM, Continental AG confirms that it plans to form a partnership with an as-yet unnamed electronic mapmaker to enable vehicle navigation systems to spot potential hazards by looking "around the corner."
Christian Senger, Continental's technology chief, told Automotive News that his company is seeking a partner to map vehicle location data to spot accidents, traffic jams or other potential obstacles.
"It is yet another way for vehicles to figure out where other cars are," Senger said. "We think these channels are necessary."
That partner would form a triumvirate with IBM Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc., which recently announced partnerships with Continental to analyze location data generated by vehicles.
IBM will run vast data farms to analyze the data, while Cisco will ensure the security of the data transmissions. The third partner would provide a "high-precision land map" to help monitor road conditions, Senger said.
But Senger declined to confirm or deny whether Continental is close to a deal with Google, as reported last month by German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"We have read about it in the newspapers," Senger remarked.
There are other potential mapmaking partners, such as Tele Atlas NV of the Netherlands and HERE , a Chicago-based subsidiary of Nokia Corp.
On Sept. 9, HERE established itself as a player when it announced a deal to provide Mercedes-Benz with mapping software for future autonomous cars.
In August, HERE produced a three-dimensional digital map of the 62-mile road from Mannheim to Pforzheim, which Mercedes used to guide an autonomous S500 sedan. The map indicated lanes, traffic signs and the exact locations of traffic lights.
Separately, HERE also announced an agreement this month to supply some three-dimensional mapping features for Continental's infotainment system.
Senger wasn't willing to identify Continental's likely mapmaking partner for autonomous cars. But he did confirm that mapping software will be a key technology for fully autonomous vehicles, which would pilot themselves without a driver's input.
This year Continental signed an agreement with BMW to develop a self-driving vehicle suitable for highway travel.
Nissan Motor Co. and Mercedes-Benz also have announced plans to develop production-ready autonomous vehicles by 2020, and other automakers are working on versions.
The key to autonomous vehicles is a collision avoidance system that use a mix of radar, lidar, cameras and ultrasound sensors to detect other vehicles.
To demonstrate its expertise, Continental converted a Volkswagen Passat into an autonomous vehicle and drove it around the United States.
As long as the motorist actively monitors road conditions, onboard collision avoidance sensors work quite well, Senger said.
"We've talked about a 'chauffer button,'" Senger noted. "The vehicle drives itself on the highway, and when you leave the highway, the vehicle calls you [to resume control], and you have to be back within 10 seconds."
To operate safely, such vehicles will require data transmissions from the Internet to provide continuous updates about road conditions, Senger said.
Even with those updates, the car's onboard computer would retain responsibility for detecting collision threats. The vehicle must possess sufficient onboard computing power to avoid collisions without Internet help.
"We don't gamble with lives," Senger said. "But to enrich this intelligence, information from the cloud would be a huge asset. For a high-quality system, it is essential."
The mapmaking partnership would go beyond real-time traffic advisories, a feature already available through current infotainment systems.
Autonomous cars would, in theory, analyze road conditions by using two communications channels.
To evaluate nearby road conditions -- say, within hundreds of yards -- vehicles would communicate their locations directly to each other through a Wi-fi link. Traffic signals also could be fitted with transmitters so they could tell vehicles in the area that they had just turned red.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has conducted a yearlong test of such a system by fitting nearly 3,000 vehicles in Ann Arbor, Mich., with location transmitters.
To assess more distant road conditions -- say, a mile or more away -- the vehicle's onboard computer would get updates from the cloud through a cell phone link.
That's where IBM's data farms, Cisco's network security and electronic maps by Google -- or some other provider -- would be put to use.
Automakers are taking a serious look at vehicle-to-vehicle communications.
In January, Toyota Motor Corp. announced plans to set up an 8.6-acre proving grounds in Susono City, Japan, to test vehicle-to-vehicle communications.
On a road system modeled after urban streets, Toyota will test the ability of vehicles to avoid collisions caused by blind intersections, sudden lane changes and other situations.
Continental says such tests will demonstrate the advantages of self-driving cars that can broadcast their location to other vehicles. But other suppliers aren't convinced.
"Your vehicle needs to sense where other vehicles and pedestrians are," said John Plant, CEO of TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. "But I don't know whether your car needs to tell another vehicle, 'I am here and you are there.'"
TRW produces cameras and radar for collision avoidance, and it has developed a control unit to monitor road hazards around the car.
These technologies are necessary tools for autonomous vehicles, and they should suffice for some degree of autonomous driving, Plant said.
Like TRW, German supplier Robert Bosch has developed sensors and control units to guide autonomous cars. Bosch also has built a self-driving vehicle to test these technologies.
Gerhard Steiger, president of Bosch Chassis Systems, says he is not convinced that vehicle-to-vehicle communications are a prerequisite for self-driving vehicles.
"It's still an open issue how this data can be used," Steiger said. "It gives you additional functionality, but it is not a precondition for autonomous driving."
At a time when key players are still debating the utility of a vehicle-to-vehicle communications grid, it is not yet clear when such a system might be introduced.
Senger believes automakers can introduce vehicle-to-vehicle communications without costly upgrades to roads and traffic signals.
But motorists would have to be willing to pay a bit more for such vehicles.
"Is the carmaker willing to install the sensors?" Senger asks. "It depends upon the customer, who has to see the value of it."
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