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Nissan car monitors GPS for road dangers ahead
by Martyn Williams
Be the first to comment | I like it!

Most drivers have done it: misjudged a bend in the road and only realized they are travelling too fast when they start wrestling the wheel to stay safely in their lane. A new safety system developed by Nissan could put an end to such situations by warning drivers if they are approaching a curve too fast.

The system, which goes by the somewhat clunky "navigation-cooperative intelligent pedal" name, monitors the car's location via the navigation system and keeps an eye out for upcoming curves and bends in the road. It judges the maximum safe speed from the tightness of the curve and then keeps a watch on the car's speed.

If the car is approaching the curve too fast, it first triggers a warning announcement from the navigation system that there's a curve ahead.

Should the driver not decelerate, an actuator connected to the accelerator will push the pedal up to reduce the flow of fuel to the engine and then gently apply the brakes to reduce speed. When the car gets to the safe speed for the curve the system disengages.

In a demonstration of the system at Nissan's test track outside of Tokyo, it worked without fail each time a sharp bend was approached too fast.

For a driver who has misjudged the tightness of the curve, as opposed to one who is not concentrating, the audible warning could be an easy one to ignore, but it was quite difficult to ignore the accelerator being pushed up. It's of course possible to push back, but when the car starts fighting your speed it would be a brave driver who ignores such a warning.

"By using this system, drivers can feel more peace of mind and drive more easily," said Kazuhiro Doi, general manager in Nissan's technology development division.

The system will begin appearing in production cars later this year when it debuts in Nissan's Fuga car in Japan.

The same car will also introduce a second safety system designed to help cars get more safely around curves. Called "active stability assist," the system works to synchronize braking, steering and engine response so that the driver feels more in control when heading through tight curves, such as those on winding mountain roads.

When enabled, the system should result in a smoother and more controlled ride through sharp turns.

Both safety systems are part of Nissan's safety shield concept, which seeks to prevent the car from entering a situation where a collision is unavoidable.

"Our goal is to create a collision-free vehicle," said Doi. "Historically all automakers have tried to create safer vehicles, especially with airbags or a safety body, and such a system works when you crash. Recently we could realize a lot of electronics-based systems, and by using them detect the risk and work the brakes or steering before you get into a risky situation."

It would be better if this system could be used to generate automatic pace notes.

50% of plane crashes are pilot error, planes can be flown by themselves so then if planes flew themselves then accidents would fall by 50% BUT would you get into a plane without a pilot?

It would be better if this system could be used to generate automatic pace notes.

I could forsee the auto pace notes decideing to let the Audi TT that drives the road each day take the bend at 55mph and then letting the transit van career off the cliff

Hey, don't knock the tranny van, I used to drive one and although they aren't the best acceleration about, they certain handle well and can out corner a few other things....

Let's not forget that this is a system whose accuracy and availablility is entirely dependent on the whims of the American military!

That's really weird! (and slightly terrifying)!

I think there's one huge, crucial difference between this and systems like ABS, Electronic Stability Control, Brake Assist, Traction Conrol etc in that this system seems to be the only one that pre-empts the event. All the others experience the event and react to it in some way.

Someone has already rasied the question about what happens when it's icy, but that's just the tip of the ice berg! (sorry 'bout the awful pun)!

Does it have a different setting when it rains?

What about the myriad of other "conditions" that a sensible and experienced driver would take into account? Can it spot a diesel spill?, a horse half way round a bend? What happens when that bend gets re-surfaced? Do you have to pay for a subscription to download new data each year? Can it tell how worn your tyres are, or whether you've fitted different ones to those fitted as OE? Can it tell how able the driver is, how tired, distracted...

My guess is that it can't, and won't ever - which means that they'll have chosen very "safe" default settings that make you take the corner very slowly...

And all this is completely aside from the generally held Safespeed belief that this sort of driver aid is counter-productive because it just encourages a further dumbing-down and discourages assessing a situation for one's self.

Of course this is the next step up from the Speed restriction computer that doesn't let you exceed the speed limit, it will also set each corner speed to the old granny safety level, so that when you are "belting" along at 50 MPH on your rural straight with no one about for miles, you suddenly find yourself slowing to 20MPH to take that corner that you always used to take safely at 50MPH......NICE!!!

I'm getting seriously fed up with smartarses getting 'clever' with technology. It'll be our downfall yet.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

If everything around us is chock full of clever technology, capable of figuring out everything for us, what's left for us to do?

e.

If everything around us is chock full of clever technology, capable of figuring out everything for us, what's left for us to do?
What kind of people are we 'creating', or at least encouraging, when there are no mistakes of any real consequence?