Speeding.....

[PaulF]

Regarding assists and automation. It's the future, there's no point denying it and saying taking away seat belts will make people drive safer, truth of the matter is people don't drive to cause accidents. People want to get from A to B in the safest and fastest possible way, automation can help with both.

I remember seeing a while ago that Audi had set up a town in Germany where all the traffic lights were monitored and the info passed to the cars, once the route had been set the correct speed was sent to the cars to ensure that they arrived at the traffic lights when they were on green, the main advantage was for fuel consumption but it helped traffic move a lot smoother. I guess it would be quite a few years before anything similar would be mainstream.

 

[dejongj]

It not negativity its mere common sense thinking in that it will be extremely difficult to get autonomous cars to mix with human driven equivalents

Ofcourse it will be difficult, simple solution to that would be not to mix them

But why not look at some positive energy and focus on how this can improve. I'd like to see freight getting automated as well. It feels so antiquated to have lorry drivers trailering this stuff about all behind each other. Perfect opportunity for automation of some way. Why transport the goods? Why not send the design digitally to a 3D printer in the home and create it just just in time? Or why not use transformium to reuse and repurpose the old goods without creating a landfill issues with even more lorries on the road. So many opportunities.

 

[stupar]

I agree there are so many opportunities I just believe that our infrastructure and resources would not be able to cope with such major change.

Our road and rail networks are pish compared to our European counterparts and no one will want to foot the massive bill to make essential changes happen.

 

[wyx087]

The automation happens in cars and lorries. The road doesn't have to change (apart from perhaps repaint fading road markings). All the automation systems already exist, they can deal with motorway driving no problem. For example newest Mercedes S class can autonomously drive up to 10 seconds without hands on the wheel, this hand-on-wheel requirement ONLY came from government regulations (lack of).

End of the day, driving on motorway and dual carriage ways are boring, repetitive. It's the perfect place for automation. The Milton Keynes and Coventry self-driving pods are nice scientific experiments, but I fear they are asking too much from this primitive technology.

 

[Blank_Canvas]

I've seen a few of the new pod cars in Bristol . We are light years away from this becoming reality anytime soon. There is no national or local Government appetite. At the moment it's all about University kudos who can develop the best system.

 

[dejongj]

And I hope there will be many winners

 

[Nod]

I just hope there are no losers if when the technology fails during debugging...

 

[Dave *]

I just hope there are no losers if when the technology fails during debugging...

The same could be said for all the computerised bits going into modern cars (imagine the brake assist having a meltdown and slamming on the brakes while doing 70mph on a wet motorway).

 

[Mr Bump]

i keep it under the limit around town so 28 in a 30 and say 38 in a 40 my citroen has a digital dash which sat nav says is spot on.
anyone up my ase can just look at my mucky boot

 

[boliston]

.....
Imagine motorways without any congestion, imagine you can get from London to Bristol 1hr30 instead of 2hr30, imagine motorways are actually fast moving (eg 100mph). Mercedes and Audi (to name a few) already have the technology to drive autonomously on the motorway, the automation in complex urban environment still need tweaking, but automation on motorway is far safer than slow-reacting, poor-judgement, road-raging humans.

My vision of 2020 is to have outer most lane on motorway dedicated to autonomous cars with a much higher speed limit. You drive your car normally onto the motorway, then you press a button to let automation take control. It safely merges (humans can't merge to safe their life!) and drive on the motorway until 5miles away from exit, where exits the outside lane and prompts the driver to take control.

The trouble with these higher speeds is that they pretty much kill fuel efficiency - a car going 100mph will probably only have half the efficiency of a car going 60mph.

 

[Blank_Canvas]

The trouble with these higher speeds is that they pretty much kill fuel efficiency - a car going 100mph will probably only have half the efficiency of a car going 60mph.

No the problem with people driving at these speeds is that they will probably kill themselves or someone else. That's the real issue !

 

[nilagin]

The trouble with these higher speeds is that they pretty much kill fuel efficiency - a car going 100mph will probably only have half the efficiency of a car going 60mph.

Not necessarily, years ago cars only had 4 gears, then came 5 and 6, some now have 7. Once the speed is attained and the right gear selected, relatively little power is required, cars are in existence with cylinder deactivation reducing consumption and emissions. Plus there are always hybrids where the electric motor will be capable of moving the vehicle at such speeds.

 

[dejongj]

The trouble with these higher speeds is that they pretty much kill fuel efficiency - a car going 100mph will probably only have half the efficiency of a car going 60mph.

It could but doesn't have to. I recall my bmw 750. Its sweet spot was around 90mph ticking over at about 1800 revs barely doing any work at all.

 

[boliston]

It could but doesn't have to. I recall my bmw 750. Its sweet spot was around 90mph ticking over at about 1800 revs barely doing any work at all.

This car is actually quite bad for fuel economy with over 180mg co2 per km. It might have a "sweet spot" at 90mph but the car is basically bad for efficiency overall.

 

[dejongj]

This car is actually quite bad for fuel economy with over 180mg co2 per km. It might have a "sweet spot" at 90mph but the car is basically bad for efficiency overall.

Lol I think you've got the wrong engine there. Who on earth gets a double glazed V12 beast for efficiency? Sorry but that is the least thing on my mind. Now mechanical efficiency and load on the engine absolutely, but all the rest is just pure nonsense.

What's next? A ford transit van with windows is a nice and cheap campervan?

 

[wyx087]

No the problem with people driving at these speeds is that they will probably kill themselves or someone else. That's the real issue !

That's why we entrust faster reacting machines that doesn't get tired or bored.

As for fuel efficiency. It is the change of momentum that costs the environment. Most hybrids can cruise motorway speeds on electrical power no problem. So with less braking, less road-raging human driving styles, automated driving should be MORE fuel efficient.


As I said, it was my vision. I'm not in auto industry and have no influence on it apart from adding £1000 on my next car for the latest adaptive cruise control to "vote with my money". I'm sure my idea isn't perfect, but I feel it is a lot better than the negativity towards new technology shown in this thread.

 

[Nod]

Not necessarily, years ago cars only had 4 gears, then came 5 and 6, some now have 7. Once the speed is attained and the right gear selected, relatively little power is required, cars are in existence with cylinder deactivation reducing consumption and emissions. Plus there are always hybrids where the electric motor will be capable of moving the vehicle at such speeds.

What you're ignoring is that the wind resistance increases exponentially as speed increases. Any amount of gears will not compensate for that! You still need a certain amount of power to maintain a speed and the higher that speed, the more power the engine needs to be producing.

 

[AHILL]

I dont know why you are bothering, the young uns of today know everything including the evolution of auto aerodynamics

 

[Russ77]

What you're ignoring is that the wind resistance increases exponentially as speed increases. Any amount of gears will not compensate for that! You still need a certain amount of power to maintain a speed and the higher that speed, the more power the engine needs to be producing.

Just what I was thinking!

My ex-father in law was convinced his 1.3 escort had "two econonmical speeds" 56mph and 70mph. I tried explaining to him about wind resistence and the fact the two speeds were just for mpg comparison but do you think he'd listen? :banghead:

 

[Byker28i]

What you're ignoring is that the wind resistance increases exponentially as speed increases. Any amount of gears will not compensate for that! You still need a certain amount of power to maintain a speed and the higher that speed, the more power the engine needs to be producing.

Yup this. There's someone with a similar engine to mine, did 190mph for 380-400bhp. He's replaced the engine for a tuned LS3 and now has 550bhp, still can't push the car much over 203mph.

 

[Overexposed]

Speed awareness

I remember seeing a while ago that Audi had set up a town in Germany where all the traffic lights were monitored and the info passed to the cars, once the route had been set the correct speed was sent to the cars to ensure that they arrived at the traffic lights when they were on green, the main advantage was for fuel consumption but it helped traffic move a lot smoother. I guess it would be quite a few years before anything similar would be mainstream.

I used to work in Manchester and going out down Princess Parkway out to the M56 if you stayed at 30 miles an hour after hitting the right timing you could drive all the way through without stopping. As soon as you changed speed you lost the synch, but it as amazing if you get in synch with the lights and the speed limits how much easier it is to drive in cities.

 

[nilagin]

What you're ignoring is that the wind resistance increases exponentially as speed increases. Any amount of gears will not compensate for that! You still need a certain amount of power to maintain a speed and the higher that speed, the more power the engine needs to be producing.

Your car will be using less power at 70mph in 6th than it would in 5th or 4th. My Mondeo TDCi did 70mph at 2000rpm in 6th, at this sort of engine speed, the egr valve opens releasing dirty warm recirculated exhaust into the intake manifold to reduce NOX emissions, this in effect reduces the power of the engine, but it can still maintain the speed.

 

[nilagin]

Yup this. There's someone with a similar engine to mine, did 190mph for 380-400bhp. He's replaced the engine for a tuned LS3 and now has 550bhp, still can't push the car much over 203mph.

Unless he's changed the gearbox ratios they are probably restricting him from going faster.