What are automakers learning about driverless cars from Star Wars, NASA … and your living room?

What are automakers learning about driverless cars from Star Wars, NASA … and your living room?

Today’s road cars owe a lot to their high-powered cousins on the race track.

Traditionally, when automakers have looked for new technology for their next road model, they’ve looked to advances being made on the race circuit – particularly Formula One – for inspiration.

Tech like traction control, semi-automatic gearboxes, lightweight high-strength carbon fibre body parts and energy recovery systems have all moved from motorsport to mainstream.

 

[callout]Carmakers are now drawing inspiration for future vehicles from an unexpected array of sources[/callout]

 

Oh, and let’s not forget how control buttons have been moving from the dash to the steering wheel.

But times are changing.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January has underlined how carmakers are now drawing inspiration for future vehicles from an unexpected array of sources.

 

NASA and Nissan

What happens when a driverless car comes across an unexpected situation; for example, a police officer using hand signals to direct traffic around an accident?

Nissan believes the answer lies in the same tech that NASA deployed to help its Mars Curiosity rover deal with the hostile conditions on the red planet. Basically, when Curiosity’s Seamless Autonomous Mobility system (SAM) encounters the unexpected, it phones home to ask for help. Sensor readings and images are beamed back to NASA for interpretation and a decision about what to do.

Nissan believes the SAM system would see the same thing happen back on earth for driverless taxis or autonomous commercial fleets.

If they encounter something unusual, live data will be sent from the vehicle to a control room for human assessment and a decision about what to do next.

Ah, but why not just ask the humans in the vehicle, I hear you ask? Good question!

 

Your home

Ford, Hyundai, Nissan and BMW all appear to be drawing inspiration from life at home for their future driverless cars.

BMW unveiled its “i Inside Future” concept car at CES – complete with scatter cushions, built-in bookshelf and interior furnishings that looked like they had leapt from the pages of an Ikea catalogue.

 

[video_embed url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBqpbcRlIE&feature=youtu.be” embed_style=”default”]

 

BMW also announced that it would be adding Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant to future vehicles – a move followed by Nissan. Cortana will allow drivers or passengers to use voice-controls to engage driver-assist features like auto-park.

Similarly, Ford announced at CES that it is planning to introduce Amazon’s Alexa voice-controlled virtual assistant to future vehicles.

[callout]Ask Alexa to start, lock or unlock your car while you’re still at home[/callout]

 

Today, you’ll find Alexa in a growing number of homes answering questions about news, weather, recipes, ordering products (through Amazon, of course) or controlling connected devices, from TVs and music systems, to thermostats and coffee machines.

Tomorrow, car owners will be able to access cloud-based movies or music on the move, but also ask Alexa to start, lock or unlock their car while still at home. Conversely, the system will allow drivers to ask Alexa to turn on their house lights or heating when they are on the move.

Hyundai continued the theme: the blurred line between house and vehicle. It is working with Google to bring Google Home voice-control tech to its future vehicles. If you can talk to your house, why not your car? If a virtual assistant can tell you about your appointments, the weather and control automated tech in your home, why not your vehicle too?

 

Star Wars

No, you’re not going to see an X-Wing, Tie Fighter or Millennium Falcon on the road any time soon. But you might see BB8 …

That’s the ‘affectionate’ name computer systems specialist Nvidia has given to the driverless car it unveiled at CES. Why BB8? Nvidia says its artificial intelligence system – again driven by voice-recognition software – will ‘learn’ with its human owner over time. Maybe it’ll learn regular routes or preferred driving habits? Maybe just the way its owner talks to give commands or ask questions?

The company is invoking the lovable droid from Star Wars because it sees a different kind of relationship between human and machine in the future: more interaction.

 

What do you think?

There’s no doubt that automakers will continue to develop motorsport tech for mainstream vehicles. But it’s also becoming clear they are scouring the wider tech landscape for ideas and innovations for driverless cars.

So, what have they missed? Where else do you think they should look for inspiration?

 

 

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