Category: News

Mitsubishi Electric EMirai xS Drive concept revealed ahead of CES 2022

Mitsubishi Electric is showing the latest version of its EMirai concept vehicles. The EMirai series has made recurring appearances at CES, showing off the company's — which is a separate entity from Mitsubishi Motors — latest driving technologies. The newest iteration, whose complete name is the EMirai xS Drive Concept, is scheduled for debut at CES 2022.

Past EMirai concepts ("Mirai", like the Toyota hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, means "future" in Japanese) have focused on technologies such as driver biometrics and augmented reality to make help alleviate the task of driving. The EMirai xS Drive continues on this theme with two primary advancements.

In the realm of biometrics, the concept monitors the the driver with a near-infrared camera to detect their health. It not only checks on drowsiness, but emergency situations where an autonomous intervention may be required. It does this by keeping tabs on the driver's respiration rate and pulse, as well as checking for sudden changes in facial expressions like the closing of eyelids or opening of the mouth. If an emergency is detected, the car will take over and park to prevent accidents.

This seems to be geared towards elderly drivers, which tend to live in rural and suburban areas in Japan where public transportation isn't always an option. Mazda recently released a similar technology in Japan as well.

The system can also detect passengers, including children, using radio waves. By not relying on a weight sensor embedded in the seat like in some modern vehicles, the system can detect a child even if he or she is hiding in a footwell.

The EMirai xS Drive also uses a Mitsubishi Electric High Definition Locator to operate adaptive headlights. Operating in conjunction with the driver monitor above, it turns the headlights to better illuminate the direction where the driver's head is turned, such as a curve or slope ahead.

The system also looks for other hazards, like pedestrians who may be crossing a dark road, and uses the adaptive headlights to cast more light on those subjects. It also looks for vehicles approaching from behind, and projects a warning onto the road surface ahead, within the headlight beam spread, so the driver knows what's behind without shifting focus onto a rear-view mirror.

It appears, though, whereas past EMirai concepts have been built around an actual show car, the latest evolution is just a four seats and a dashboard in a standalone cockpit. While Mitsubishi might be on the name of the concept, this is not intended to be an exclusive feature to Mitsubishi Motors' vehicles. The Mitsubishi Group is so vast, with interests in everything from banking to mining, that Mitsubishi Electric will likely develop this solution for use in any brand that is willing to buy the technology.

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Honda launches pilot program to monitor lane markings

One of the obstacles to a fully autonomous future are the roads upon which theoretical autonomous vehicles would drive. Cameras and sensors use the painted lane lines to help them trace a path and help cars stay in their respective lanes. If you’ve ever driven a car with some level of lane-keeping or lane-following assistance, you might’ve noticed that without any lane markings, the system becomes relatively useless.

So, how does one improve matters so you can use driver assistance features in more situations? The answer is relatively simple in concept. Road operators need to maintain our roads better and with driving assistance features in mind. Honda knows this too, and it’s just devised a system to aid road workers in doing exactly that.

The Honda Research Institute is officially beginning a road condition monitoring pilot program. What does that mean? It means that Honda has devised a program that runs on its cars to constantly monitor and evaluate lane marking conditions. Using GPS, sensors and cameras, Honda’s pilot program cars will drive around and collect data on the state of our lane markings. Specifically, the program will be evaluating Ohio’s state of affairs. Honda hasn’t said if it will extend the program beyond Ohio yet, but if successful, we don’t see why it couldn’t expand.

Honda will use four grades for lane markings: green, yellow, grey and red. Green and yellow means “ideal to good.” Grey means there are no markings, and red means “need repair.” The rankings are paired with latitude and longitude data, video clips and images. It’s all then sent over to the Ohio Department of Transportation, and we can then hope the government decides to fix the areas needing repair. Of course, our faith in road operators to maintain roads properly in this country is not absolute, but at least Ohio will have a better grasp of what needs doing.

“Real-time, high-accuracy roadway data captured from connected vehicles has the potential to improve the process of identifying, reporting, and more quickly repairing hazardous road conditions,” says Paritosh Kelkar, scientist at Honda Research Institute.

In addition to reporting lane conditions to Ohio, this system has the capability of reporting a warning to other Honda vehicles. Your Honda could theoretically access the lane marking data in real time using an internet connection and your GPS coordinates and warn you when a section of poor markings is coming up, prompting you to take back full control from the lane-following system. 

Lastly, Honda teases out that it could expand this program to “monitor other types of road conditions.” What those other conditions are, we don’t know yet.

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‘American Auto’ is a new TV sitcom with Ana Gasteyer

Anytime there’s a new automotive show, our ears perk up. This time, it’s a sitcom called “American Auto.” It’ll be airing on NBC, and the network just released the show’s first promo clip that you can watch above.

NBC’s description of the show can be found directly below.

“Set in Detroit, the corporate executives of Payne Motors are at a crossroads: adapt to the changing times or be sent to the junkyard. Shaking things up is the new CEO, whose leadership, experience, and savvy are only slightly offset by her complete lack of knowledge about cars. Luckily, her team has some of the best minds in the business — when they aren’t fighting or trying to outwit each other. From the corporate office to the factory floor, the crew of Payne Motors is driving home the laughs.”

Sound interesting? At the very least, we’re intrigued to see where they take this show. The short clip depicts a scene in a boardroom where execs are working out what vehicles they’ll sell in the future. Longtime "SNL" star Ana Gasteyer is the CEO of Payne and lead of the show. We get to see the Ponderosa, which is supposedly Payne’s big idea for a future autonomous vehicle. It’s a sedan rocking a combustion engine up front with some big, gaudy wheels at all four corners. Will that make production? Who knows!

If you want to check out “American Auto,” NBC says it’s airing a special preview episode on Monday, December 13, at 10 p.m. ET. It’ll be available the following day on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock.

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Adaptive driving beams are finally going to be legal in the U.S.

Mercedes- Benz DIGITAL LIGHT: Die revolutionäre Scheinwerfertechnologie DIGITAL LIGHT mit nahezu blendfreiem Fernlicht in HD-Qualität und mit mehr als zwei Millionen Pixel Auflösung steht für höchste Präzision, optimale Sicht des Fahrers nahezu ohne Blendwirkung sowie für Performance, Fahrassistenz und Kommunikation. Mercedes- Benz DIGITAL LIGHT: The revolutionary headlamp technology DIGITAL LIGHT with almost dazzle-free main beam in HD quality and a resolution of more than two million pixels represents highest precision, optimal view for the driver almost without dazzling effect as well as performance, driver assistance and communication.

Listen up, America. Adaptive driving beams are finally going to become legal, thanks to a provision in the infrastructure bill. This is great news for nighttime driving safety — your author is particularly excited that this technology will finally be legal in cars sold in the U.S.

In case you aren't familiar, adaptive driving beams are fully explained in this story here. But in short, they’re the trick headlights we see in many European cars that can adapt their high beam illumination based on the surrounding environment. The system uses cameras and sensors to pick out other cars on the road, and is able to trace a perfect, darkened opening for the other cars, while still throwing out high beam-like light everywhere else. In a way, your brights never fully turn off. They only dim their beam in the select spots necessary so as not to blind other drivers. The headlights also dim their beam when directed at road signs as you approach them so as not to dazzle the driver with a bright reflection. There’s potential for much more, too, as some manufacturers have designed headlights that can project warning signs onto pavement, swivel up to highlight pedestrians entering the road, highlight lane changes and more. You can watch a video example of everything we described below in an Audi demonstration of the tech.

We’ve been missing out, but that’s about to change.

So, how has this tech finally found a path to legality? For years it’s been barred due to outdated regulations in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108. The exact language that held manufacturers back specifically states that headlights must have a dedicated low beam and dedicated high beam to be compliant and road legal. The new infrastructure bill changes that by laying out the following in a headlamps section: “to allow for the use on vehicles of adaptive driving beam headlamp systems.”

This request comes in the form of a direction to amend FMVSS No. 108 to include the adaptive driving beams provision, and the bill allows for two years to get it done. So yes, we could theoretically be waiting another two years, but no longer than that.

In addition to making adaptive driving beams legal, the infrastructure bill also says that testing of headlight performance will now be required. It doesn’t go much further than that, but we suspect it’ll resemble the headlight testing currently done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Watch Mercedes demonstrate Digital Light:

Porsche is developing a system to compose unique music for your drive

Modern day automobiles have done a lot to provide custom experiences for just about every driving scenario, from ambient lighting to suspension settings. Audio has also been included to an extent with better stereos and variable exhaust systems, but Porsche is going a step further. It's working on something called the Soundtrack My Life Project and having the car compose unique music that responds to your driving.

To be clear, this is not just the car selecting certain songs from your playlists or streaming services that fit either laid-back or enthusiastic driving. Instead, Porsche has libraries of original music bits and pieces that will be combined and arranged by an algorithm to match your driving. You pick the style, whether it's electronic, piano or some other genre, and it starts piecing things together. Come to a stop, and the music slows down and becomes less busy; start driving vigorously, and it transitions to more uptempo stuff with more instruments and layers.

It's currently in prototype form, and it only works with Porsche's own original music. So you can't use samples from your own music library, nor can you upload your own original music pieces. And being a prototype, it's not yet available. But during a presentation from Porsche, someone working on the project said that it could be available as soon as next year. Of course, that's subject to change. We're certainly curious to try it out. It could be pretty fun, kind of like the dynamic soundtracks you find in video games that help elevate the gameplay. On the other hand, we could see the novelty wearing off quickly, with people switching back to listening to traditional music instead.

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Robotic dog gets laid off from New York City’s police force

New York City's police department has prematurely ended its relationship with Digidog, a robotic dog built by Boston Dynamics and tested as part of a pilot program. While some praised the robot for its ability to venture into dangerous situations, others claimed it sent the wrong message to New York residents at precisely the wrong time.

City officials had high hopes for the robot, and they sent it marching into hazardous situations on several occasions. It was used in barricade and hostage situations, according to The New York Times, and it once delivered food to hostages during a home invasion in Queens. Sending officers instead of the robot could have put lives in danger.

Not everyone welcomed its presence, however. Critics have argued it sends the wrong message to the communities it's used in. "At a time where we should be having more beat cops on the street, building relationships with residents, they're actually headed in another direction in trying to replace them with robots," said Ben Kallos, a Democrat who represents the Upper East Side in the city council, in an interview with the Times.

Others agreed. The NYPD has used robotic devices, in such duties as bomb squad work, for decades, but something about the anthropomorphic quality of Digidog rubbed people the wrong way. Some compared it to the terrifying robotic dogs in the "Metalhead" episode of the "Black Mirror" TV anthology:

Some opined the four-legged robot symbolizes how aggressive police officers can be when they're dealing with poor communities. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was "glad the Digidog was put down," according to a spokesperson.

John Miller, the police department's deputy commissioner, sees the matter differently. "People had figured out the catchphrases and the language to somehow make this evil," he said. His view didn't prevail; Digidog's contract was terminated in April 2021, four months ahead of schedule. It participated in about six missions since it joined the force in August 2020, and New York spent $94,000 to lease it for a year.

"For now, this is a casualty of politics, bad information, and cheap sound bites. We should have named it Lassie," Miller concluded. The robot has been sent back to Boston Dynamics, though Miller said it might come back. It's more agile than other robots (it can climb stairs), it shoots better video footage, and it's cheaper to buy or lease.

Elsewhere in America, robotic dogs are far less controversial and surprisingly useful. Ford began testing two robotic dogs (called Fluffy and Spot, respectively) at one of its manufacturing plants in Michigan in 2020. Both were also built by Boston Dynamics to scan and document their surroundings in order to help engineers retool the plant.

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Apple Maps introduces user-based road hazard reporting, including speed traps

Apple just released an update for its Apple Maps application that brings Waze-like functionality to the iPhone’s native navigation. It allows users to report a number of different road situations, with speed traps being one of them. It’s only available to those with the iOS 14.5 beta for the time being, but we’ll give you a rundown of what to expect when the masses are brought in.

One big positive for this new reporting function is that it’s fully operational in Apple CarPlay. You can even use Siri to report things, so you can tell the voice assistant that “there’s a speed check here.” Reporting speed traps is certainly one of the most valuable (and money-saving) features of Waze, but similar to the old standby, Apple allows you to report other items, including hazards and accidents. Of course, you can break those down further by saying that there’s something on the road, or anything else along those lines that Apple has programmed in.

Building up a loyal and attentive user base similar to Waze’s could take some time, as Waze has had years of providing similar services to its users. There’s also the limitation of this feature only being usable by iPhone owners. Apple may have the majority of the active smartphone market in the U.S., but there’s still a massive chunk of the population that use Android phones, and therefore won’t be able to contribute their reporting data. Meanwhile, both Waze and Google Maps are available across ecosystems, effectively reaching a wider user base.

Apple is now the last of the big navigation/maps interfaces to adopt these features — Google Maps introduced similar functionality in 2019, and Waze has had it for years before both of them. Google Maps and Waze both offer more robust reporting systems, too, as you can get more granular with the types of hazards that are reportable.

It’s not entirely clear when this Apple Maps feature will come out of beta, but regardless of limitations, it will be a welcome improvement to a navigation app that so many people use. 

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Amazon is letting carmakers customize its Alexa voice recognition tech

Amazon doesn't build cars, but its presence in the automotive industry is growing. It announced a feature called Alexa Custom Assistant that gives carmakers the ability to customize its voice recognition technology.

At its core, the feature is built around the same artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant that millions of people have in their homes, and that numerous carmakers are putting in their models. Companies who choose to use the Custom Assistant tool kit will be able to personalize the technology by choosing unique wake words, selecting different voices, and either adding or removing features depending on the type of car it's going into.

Amazon will provide the foundation, and each company will choose what to build on it. Dodge could replace "Alexa, start the engine" with "Alexa, fire up my big ol' Hemi," for example. Or, Jeep could teach the assistant to disconnect the Wrangler's sway bars, a function the Chrysler 300 doesn't need. In addition to offering a turnkey solution for an undisclosed fee, and giving companies an alternative to the tedious and expensive process of developing software in-house, Amazon also promises to continuously improve the technology and fix bugs.

Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will be the first company to use Alexa Custom Assistant, though we don't know when it will introduce the feature, or which model(s) will get it first. It's reasonable to assume that other firms will take advantage of it, too. Rivian, which Amazon has poured a substantial amount of money into, comes to mind.

Amazon isn't the only technology company that views the automotive industry as an increasingly important source of revenue. Google makes its Android software available to companies looking for a shortcut to the land of user-friendly infotainment systems. Like Amazon, it provides the shell, and its customers choose what's in it. FCA and Polestar both use an Android-based infotainment system, but the interfaces look nothing alike.

So far, Apple is the only major holdout. Instead of focusing on what it does best — creating software and selling it — it's ostensibly in the process of developing its own car, which it will allegedly ask Hyundai to build.

Volvo patent describes a steering wheel that slides from left to right

View the 4 images of this gallery on the original article

Volvo is leveraging by-wire technology to develop a system that allows the steering wheel, the instrument cluster, and a host of switches to slide from one side of the interior to the other. It's a clever invention that turns the definition of the driver's seat on its head, and the Swedish company was recently awarded a patent for it.

Published in September 2020, the patent describes a "vehicle having multiple driving positions" thanks to a steering wheel that's mounted on a rail that stretches across the entire width of the cabin. That means the driver can sit on the left side of the car, like in most countries, or on the right side of it, like in Australia, England, and Japan, among other nations. Oddly, someone could even choose to sit in the middle of a front bench seat.

Looking ahead, Volvo added that sliding the steering wheel out of the way can allow users to enjoy more space when they're traveling in a semi-autonomous car. For example, if you're stuck in traffic, you could bump the steering wheel out of the way and read a book while a properly-equipped car navigates the bottleneck on its own. It's far easier and cheaper than designing a concept car-like steering wheel that retracts into the dashboard.

Making this technology work would require replacing all of the vehicle controls with by-wire components; it's not as science fiction-esque as it sounds. Infiniti has notably used steer-by-wire technology for years, and brake-by-wire is slowly spreading across the automotive industry. Acceleration-by-wire is so common that's it's mundane. The digital instrument cluster and the various light-related stalks could simply slide with the steering wheel.

As for the pedals, Volvo explained they could be replaced by pressure-sensitive pads, hydraulically- or pneumatically actuated sensors, or something else entirely. Either way, they'd be installed in both front footwells, and the system would automatically activate the ones located on the side the steering wheel is on.

Volvo hasn't commented on the patent, and it certainly hasn't announced plans to put the technology described by the documents in a regular-production car in the near future. It's a cool feature, but it's important to keep in mind that it often takes years for something described in patent filings to end up in showrooms. What remains to be proven is that engineering this system with an eye on mass production and getting it approved by regulators around the world would cost less than building different cars for right- and left-hand-drive markets.

Splitting the difference

Carmakers have often tried to engineer their way out of having to manufacture left- and right-hand-drive cars, or at least make the conversion as cost-efficient as possible. Part of the reason why the original Mini's speedometer was installed in the middle of the dashboard rather than behind the steering wheel was because it could stay there regardless of where the driver was sitting. It was later placed in front of the driver, but it returned to the middle in the first BMW-developed model released in 2000. McLaren's epoch-shaping F1 put the driver front and center for a multitude of reasons: improved visibility, a better driving position, and no market-specific layouts.

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5G could make your mechanic’s life easier by teaching your car to diagnose itself

In the automotive world, low-latency 5G is often trumpeted as a way to put more safety and entertainment features into the car. Samsung-owned Harman is one of the companies working on bringing the next-generation mobile broadband to your commute, and it has identified other potential uses for it, including teaching your car how to diagnose its own problems and instructing it to warn its owner if it detects an issue.

"5G can improve vehicle analytics. The car will be able to listen to wave forms or vibrations that can be analyzed on-board and uploaded to cloud-based systems," Roger Jollis, Harman's director of product management, told Autoblog. He added the technology can warn a motorist or a fleet operator when a part is about to fail, which would save time and money. It can even make an appointment with a dealer to get the problem fixed.

Humans already do this. When your engine sounds like it's about to leap out of the car, you think "that's not good," pull over, and pop the hood. And, this technology is commonly used in the aerospace sector (notably in the helicopter world), so it's not 100% new, but 5G would play a key role in automatizing it and allowing the car to communicate with a repair center in real-time by letting it send a vast amount of data in a matter of seconds.

Bringing this technology to production would require putting together a library of what common failures (like a wheel bearing, for example) sound like. Engineers would also need to strategically place sensors around the car so they can monitor what noise the timing belt makes without interference from the stereo. None of these obstacles are insurmountable; what remains to be seen is whether there is a demand for this feature.

Jollis stressed making vehicle diagnosis more accurate is merely a potential use case his team identified for in-car 5G, and Harman is not actively working on bringing it to production. It has other priorities, like helping BMW launch its first 5G-compatible car (the production version of the electric iNext SUV) before the end of 2021. Samsung announced its partnership with the Munich-based company at CES 2020. Details about what they plan to achieve remain vague, but they hinted at zero-delay streaming which opens the door to in-car gaming (including virtual reality-based experiences) and movie streaming at resolutions up to 4K. The partners also cited the ability to download high-resolution maps and to unlock vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology as advantages.

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