Lexus Unveils car, the danger of the street expected

Paul A. Eisenstein, the Detroit Bureau

It can detect a potential problem at 500 metres distance and tell the difference between red and green light. It can expect a corner even before the driver turns the wheel. It is designed to prevent a crash, but make it easier to survive a collision even as they automatically calls for help.

Toyota's Lexus luxury brand is the public give a first look on its advanced active safety research vehicle on the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Also known as the AASRV, is to test it and a variety of automated vehicle safety technologies that could be used in the not-too-distant future in series vehicles to demonstrate according to Toyota officials.

"In our quest for more automated high technologies develop, we believe that the driver needs to be fully engaged," said Templin. "For Toyota and Lexus, driverless car is only part of the story. "Our vision is a car with a smart, always attentive co-pilot whose capabilities to the safer driving contribute."But in contrast to some prototypes, the AASRV is not designed for operation with complete autonomy. Mark Templin, general manager of the Lexus brand stressed that the aim to engage and to improve the skills of the driver, instead driving a car into a fully automated activity to make.

The concept behind the AASRV said to view safety as a "holistic blend" of persons, vehicles and driving environment, Toyota. The technology used in the vehicle safety should be back to the drivers Act of the moment, is switched on like a car until home safely - or, in the case of a collision by the time as rescue and response after a crash has occurred.

A variety of technologies to 'see' what is on the road as well as in the Interior of the car, the vehicle includes security. These include:

A roof mounted, 360-degree LIDAR-laser which detecting obstacles and other objects at distances up to about 230 meters, three HD cameras can also obstacles - spotting, and reading lamps on traffic - up to 500 metres distance.Front and side-mounted radar to create a field of "Vision" around the vehicle;An inertial measurement system, which determine how the car behaves, can just for runners or sudden driver input, for example; and GPS antennas on the roof help of an integrated navigation system compare motion of the vehicle on the road itself.
Today's cars come loaded with more and more digital security technology. Electronic stability control required by federal law since the start of the model year 2011 and has saved already thousands of lives has been credited by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

New cross-traffic alert systems an oncoming vehicle can save otherwise out of sight for a driver out of a parking lot, locate. And a number of vehicles, including the latest generation Lexus LS, equipped with pre-collision warning systems, a driver for a potential crash to indicate. The LS system can bring to a halt even the car, if the driver does not react in good time – and it is designed to reduce the impact if a crash is inevitable.

While the consumer traditionally has focused Electronics Show on goodies such as televisions, smartphones and computers, it has a growing presence of automakers and suppliers focus on traffic engineering of Infotainment to hin to intelligent transportation systems, or ITS views.

The AASRV will participate in the smart car research, which could soon find communication with a roadway infrastructure intelligent - and any other vehicles. While letting also motorists know ahead of problems, such as smooth roads, construction and traffic congestion could that reduce such as the probability of collisions at blind intersections.

Toyota noted, it is one of the eight automakers crash avoidance metrics partnership (CAMP) vehicle safety communication 3 (VSC3) Consortium, designed, to various system participants.

"The real value of the research projects like this increases the focus on what seemed an unreachable dream a few years ago and is now more plausible," Templin said. "We look at the ultimate goal of a society of that values mobility TMC and Lexus, the Elimination of road deaths and injuries."

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Turn signal neglect a real danger, study shows

Joe Raedle / Getty Images file

Drivers either neglect to use their signals when changing lanes – or fail to turn the signals off – 48% of the time.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau
Forget distracted driving. A new study says there’s a far more serious problem that’s responsible for as many as 2 million accidents annually.

When’s the last time you used your own turn signals? According to research by the Society of Automotive Engineers, drivers either neglect to use their signals when changing lanes – or fail to turn the signals off – 48% of the time. And when making a turn the failure rate is around 25%. That works out to 2 billion times a day drivers fail to use signals, or 750 billion times annually.

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A lack of courtesy? Laziness? Poor training? Whatever the reason, the SAE study says the problem results in about 2 million roadway collisions annually. That’s more than twice the 950,000 accidents linked to distracted driving, which has become one of the central topics of the U.S. Department of Transportation under Sec. Ray LaHood.

“This is a first of its kind report on a subject that amazingly, has never been studied,” said Richard Ponziani, P.E., President of RLP Engineering and author of the report. Yet, despite the fact that turn signals are simple, ubiquitous and “extremely effective,” there is an epidemic lack of compliance even though “all drivers have an ongoing duty to use it, just as they have a duty to stop at a stop sign or at a red light.”

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Anecdotal evidence suggests that police put little effort into enforcement, less than they devote to speeding, or running stop signs and red lights. Other than shifting priorities, the new study suggests an alternative that it dubs the “Smart Turn Signal.”

They “are the perfect complement to the Stability Control System since Stability Control predominately prevents single-vehicle crashes, whereas the Smart Turn Signal prevents multi-vehicle crashes,” suggested Ponziani.

Such a system would automatically shut off a turn signal, likely by timing out after a set delay or by detecting when a vehicle has finished changing lanes – much as today’s cars automatically cancel the signals after making a turn at an intersection.

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For scofflaws who simply don’t use their signals, the system would work much like a seatbelt reminder. It would be able to sense if drivers routinely ignore their turn signals and start to flash what the study calls a “friendly” reminder.

Using the latest electronics, a Smart Turn Signal system would actually be simpler and less expensive than the current mechanical trip mechanism, according to Ponziani, a press release concluding that, “This breakthrough represents a perfect opportunity to significantly reduce multi-vehicle crash rates, reduce vehicle cost and make driving a lot more friendly and courteous across the U.S.”

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