The future of the automotive industry...

1. Automobile – Not just a Mechanical Device
A Sentient Mechatronic System
Top-Left: First patented gasoline car by Carl Benz (1886) SOURCE: www.daimler.com | Bottom-Left: Google Car computer vision view SOURCE: Google, via Engineering Director Ray
Kurzveil’s blog. | Rest: Advanced Automotive electronics and capabilities of todays cars.
he etymology of
the word,
“Automobile”,
was originally
suggesting the
ability to move ( be mobile)
on its own power (auto).
The advent of technology
has redefined this definition
to not just moving on its
own power, but also to
sense, process, think and act
on its own.
In comparison to the
complexity of the present-
day automobiles, and with
the foray of autonomous
vehicles with the likes of
corporate giants like Google
and pioneering start-ups
like Tesla, the first
petroleum fuelled
automobile developed by
Carl Benz in 1879, though a
legendary innovation of its
time, seems a simplistic
Mechanical Device
overshadowed by the
Sentient Mechatronic
Systems of today.
The Automotive industry
has been the forerunner in
adopting the latest
technologies especially in
the Formula 1 races. The
focus being on speed and
control. On a parallel track,
the consumer segment of
the automobile industry
was also adopting and
innovating the available
technologies to enhance
safety, comfort,
convenience, and even
luxury into their offerings.
The ever-increasing
computing power and the
steady decrease in size of
the computational devices,
which are going above and
beyond the Moore’s Law,
are providing the
automotive industry with a
computational surplus
enabling them to not only
focus on the essentials but
also peripherals.
For the terms Ergonomics,
Safety, Comfort, Driver
Assistance, etc., the new
keyword being prepended is
“Active”.
These new generation of
“Active” Automobiles are on
a league of their own.
They sense their
surroundings, their
occupants and their needs,
and “actively” respond and
assist them utilizing the data
they have “sensed” and
sometimes even by
“learning” new patterns and
even modifying their default
“behaviour”!
There are many “Active”
features which are already
in vogue but which we may
not have taken note of
because of their seamless
integration and intuitive
application. Some of them
are, Active Control
Retractors, Pre-Tensioners,
Active Buckle Lifters, Anti-
skid Braking System,
Electronic Stability Control,
Adaptive Cruise Control,
Active Accident Avoidance
Systems, Adaptive Front
Lighting Systems, etc.
With even more advances
in sensing mechanisms like
Surround Cameras, IR
Cameras, RADAR, LIDAR,
etc., and with great
processing power at our
disposal, Google and Tesla
have ventured into the
realm of autonomous
vehicles, automobiles which
sense, process, learn and act
on their own! They are
combining the data
obtained from their sensors,
Sensor Fusion, and enhance
and enrich the information
with data available from the
World Wide Web and
generate comprehensive,
contextual and even
cognitive maps of their
surroundings.
For all the motorheads
out there, this beautiful mix
of Mechanics, Electronics,
Information Processing,
neural networks, etc., with a
pinch of AI (Artificial
Intelligence) and more
specifically, Machine
Learning signifies the
heralding of the era of
Sentient Mechatronics in
Automobiles.
by Vignan Tej
Technology Enthusiast
Learning Enthusiast
Satyam Venture
Engineering Services
T
More than 10 million
lines of software code
run a typical vehicle’s
sophisticated
computer network—or
over half the lines of
code that reportedly
run Boeing’s 787
Dreamliner
Sense
Visual, Infrared, Thermal
Cameras, Radio Detection
and Ranging (RADAR) –
Low, Medium and Long
Range, RaCam (Mid-range
radar combined with
forward facing camera),
Light Detection and
Ranging (LIDAR)
Process
Customized, robust
computational ASIC
platforms with capabilities
to process approximately 1
GB of data per second in
the car’s real-time
operating system.
SOURCE: Technology and
Computing Requirements
for Self-Driving Cars, Intel.
Think
Machine Learning
algorithms, neural
networks, AI
Act
Present: Steering Assist,
Adaptive speed control,
Drive by wire, Stability
Control, Active Seatbelt
Retractors, Active Buckle
Lifters, Brake Assist,
Electronic Brakeforce
Distribution (EBD),
Collision Avoidance, etc.
Almost there: Fully
Autonomous driving,
Natural Language
Processing, Contextual
referencing, Augmented
Reality and much more…
Obstacle
Vehicle Tracking
Sense Process Think Act
The future belongs
to those who
believe in the
beauty of their
dreams.
- Eleanor Roosevelt