Car Firms Driving Ahead With Ideas
The automotive sector appears to be a thriving area for IT innovation at the moment.
Whilst driverless cars may or may not be a success story for the future, other new developments are making their way into production vehicles now.
One new option which is likely to catch on is Mercedes’ Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC), which is targeted at fuel economy.
It has already proved itself on their trucks and will now be migrated to cars as well.
In a nutshell, PPC is a cruise control system that can see the road ahead and time gear changes and braking to optimise fuel consumption. It does this with a combination of GPS location tracking and 3D mapping, used to look ahead for hills and bends and predict their effect.
This would not be of much benefit around town, of course, but on the open road, following major routes, a cost saving of 3-5 per sent is claimed.
Another forthcoming cruise control add-on is to be added to cars by Ford. This is Intelligent Speed Limiter, which links the speed control system with Traffic Sign Recognition. TSR has been around for a few years and uses computer-linked front-facing cameras to recognise road signs and announce them to drives, often via infotainment systems.
Sometimes TSR cameras are complemented by the use of GPS and mapping data, showing the location of speed restriction areas, as a back-up. Ford’s latest step is to adjust the cruise settings automatically in response to changes in speed limits, preventing the car from exceeding 5mph above that permitted. This measure, permitted. This measure, though, is more likely to be welcomed by careful drivers than by chancers.
