Smart Vehicles in smart environment

 The vision of technology in today’s world has reached beyond our imaginations. There is no place left untouched by technology. Just an idea is enough to break new grounds for something innovative and creative.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

These lines by Albert Einstein emphasizes on the fact that if a person is able to imagine something then science can give life to that mind's eye. Science has laid its branches far and wide but this white paper throws light upon the automotive advancements in and outside vehicles.  

Revolution in vehicle technology

From the past few years, the automotive industry and leaders have made the world witness an entirely new side of vehicle technology. Innovations that were earlier seen only in movies have now become a reality. The automotive sector has slowly moved from mechanical to electronic sector, enhancing both its driving capabilities and efficiency. The standards of quality and productivity in the advanced design of vehicle have made them safer, more fuel efficient and smarter than ever before. Also the automotive workplace has evolved to an environment of high skills, innovative technologies and dynamic change from an image of “dusky, dirty and precarious”.

The manually driven vehicle of 17^th century now runs at high speeds with great luxuries. Considering the past we may notice that vehicle manufacturers were mostly concerned with starter motors, radios, windshield wipers and lights. With the advancement in technology more electronics have been introduced into the vehicles. The comfort and the power features are now updated at very frequent intervals. With the introduction of electronic control units (ECU) driver has better and smoother control over the vehicle. The heavy vehicles are not heavy anymore as the steering has become much more easy and automated.

 ‘Smart vehicle’ coping up with ‘Smarter Cities’

The label ‘Smart city’ is centred on the technological progression of the world. Smart cities are classified under six main axes,

ü  Smart economy

ü  Smart mobility

ü  Smart environment

ü  Smart people

ü  Smart living

ü  Smart governance

Vehicles are not getting smarter by choice but because of the need to cope with the blooming technological environment. The ‘Smart City’ chiefly applies to the growing technical changes around the world. Concentrating from a road point of view, now a day we see “roads going technical” everywhere; starting from the red lights to the speed detection technology, further extending to city surveillance systems, GPS system and many more. The list is endless, just a look around would make us realize the level of technical environment we are into. Cynics may see this differently but such immense technological advancements have certainly opened new doors for the world.

Smart Vehicles in Smart Environment has not only made the world a luxurious place but also it ensures passengers safety. The experiences state that technology equipped vehicle have been successful in saving many lives which in normal circumstances would not have been possible.  

Technology – enlightening the environs

GPS system installed in a car

Sensors, radars, cameras, computers and communicators, all have transformed the mobility. Modern society depends heavily on mobility and hence it is very important to be careful of the risk of fatalities, injuries and material damage. With time the number of on road vehicles have increased significantly and so has traffic congestion. Indian cities undergo a loss of Rs.3 billion every year due to traffic congestion as stated in the ‘The Anatomy of Congestion’ published in Down to Earth magazine. The introduction of technology has been able to attenuate traffic congestion by approximately 25%. Implementation of these innovations will certainly result in smarter vehicles and thus – smart cities.

Collision Detection: An alarm or automatic brakes can be triggered in case of a collision warning. This would prevent major accidents.

Autonomous Cruise Control (ACC):  This can be used to avoid rear-end collisions. If just 3% of vehicles are equipped with this, it could save up to 4,000 accidents per annum.

Lane support warning: When shifting to wrong lane or driving on the wrong side, a warning can be issued. This could save approximately 1500 accidents per annum only if 0.6% of vehicles were equipped with it.

Variable Message sign: It is an electronic traffic sign that can be used to warn the travellers of traffic congestion, accidents, speed limits and other notifications.

Auto tolling: Auto tolling is a great way to avoid the breaking of traffic flow.

Driver hypo vigilance system: Suppose the driver is dosing off to sleep, the system would be able to detect and issue an immediate warning. It is estimated that technology like this could prevent up to 30% of fatal crashes on motorways and 9% of all fatal crashes.