Cars That Have Feelings

July 9, 2002 BY NEDRA PICKLER ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, In an AP story about extrasensory vehicles that could stop accidents, writer Nedra Pickler reported that a Dailmer Chrysler video, shows how a car in a supermarket parking lot stops an inch from a shopping cart even though the driver never applied the brakes.

An onboard computer did it for him, with help from a radar system mounted on the bumper.

Carmakers are working on systems that send out pulses to determine the location, size and distance of objects and then reflect that information back to sensors on the front and rear bumpers.

Applications could extend well beyond supermarket parking lots.

The sensors might detect a child running behind a minivan backing out of a driveway. Or they might measure the speed and angle of a drunken driver swerving into oncoming traffic. The onboard computer could tighten the seat belt and deploy an air bag just before impact to lessen the chance of serious injury.

"Through sensors, vehicles sharing the road in the more distant future would be able to speak to each other," said Ford Motor Co. spokeswoman Sara Tatchio. "The possibilities are amazing."

Ultra-wideband technology sends millions of narrow pulses each second over the airwaves to get a precise reading of an object's location and distance. It can carry huge amounts of data over a short distance and carry signals through objects that reflect signals at more limited bandwidths.

It has myriad potential uses, from home-appliance networking to locating buried objects.

DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Renault, Audi, Ford and Volvo all lobbied the Federal Communications Commission to allow them to use ultra-wideband in vehicles. The FCC agreed in February.

Some vehicles already use radar to detect objects in their path, but the measurements are less precise and are not integrated with the vehicle's braking or restraint systems. The systems simply warn the driver that an object is approaching, either with beeps or a dashboard light.

Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, is skeptical that ultra-wideband will dramatically improve vehicle safety.

"They may perform great on the test track, but they often fall flat on a real highway," he said.

Automakers believe the sensors will be so accurate and the computer so reliable that vehicles won't react to objects that don't pose a danger. The technology would apply the brakes to keep a vehicle that is parallel parking from bumping another car but would recognize when other objects such as light posts or street signs are not in the vehicle's path.

Likewise, if a driver is applying the brakes while approaching people in a crosswalk, the system would not interfere. But if the system detects the vehicle is approaching too quickly, the brakes could be applied automatically.