Ford System Will Warn, Correct Lane-Drifting Drivers

PolygamousRanchKid writes "Ford says its new Fusion, which will debut at the North American International Auto Show in a couple weeks, will be the first mainstream midsize sedan in North America to offer a lane departure system. Lane departure systems are aimed at warning drivers, especially drowsy ones, if their vehicles wander out of their lane. A digital camera mounted on the windshield ahead of the rear-view mirror keeps a watch. The system not only causes the steering wheel to vibrate if it senses an unintentional lane departure, it will also steer the car back into the right lane. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes occur every year as a result of drowsy drivers, leading to 1,500 deaths, 71,000 injuries and $12.5 billion in monetary losses." I'd just like to know how hard the AI will fight if it misinterprets a driver's intentional lane change.

Comments

Turn signals are a good thing

[EngrBohn]

Personally, I'd guess that a turn signal will convince the AI to allow an intentional lane change.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[newcastlejon]

I wonder if this system could be integrated with parking sensors, to prevent some instances of lane-changing when there's another vehicle in the blind spot.

re: indicators, I welcome anything that even gently enforces their use.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[sribe]

As do I. All these nut bags that refuse to use their signals are a danger on the road.

Turn signals are dangerous. They provide your adversaries with advance notice of your intention; it's much better to take them by surprise. (I came to understand this when I lived in Boston.)

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[Macman408]

In my car, yes, that is the case. Also, the torque applied to the steering wheel to keep you in your lane is pretty minimal; even grandma would have no trouble overpowering the motor to, say, make an emergency lane change to avoid an accident.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[phantomfive]

I came here to say the exact same thing, the post is written in the window waiting for a submit button-press,

Then I realized that in some emergency situations, a lane change is absolutely required. Vibrating the steering wheel is ok, but if it's forcing you to move back to your lane, then this could cause accidents.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[EdIII]

I assume your talking about those assholes that speed up to block you the moment you put on your turn signal. I hate those mfckers.

Which is why this system would prevent my patented "drunk man behind the wheel" maneuver. Asshole does not want to respond your signal and let you in? Just start drifting over a little, correct, and then drift back more forcefully.

If they think you are lucid, they become aggressive. If they think you are having problems it is amazing how much distance they give you right away.

Of course, when I had a F350 raised up, everybody gave me room right away. I miss that beast.

P.S - Yes. I fully acknowledge that I am psychopath on the road, but then I view it as warfare just like the poster you replied to.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[zippthorne]

You haven't driven in the boston area, then.

If you want to get anywhere inside of route 495, you have to throw out almost everything know about safe driving. That knowledge is useless to you. You are in a battle. It is as important to move forward as it is to survive.

If you decide to visit boston, if it is your first visit, and it is raining or snowing or (especially) foggy, don't get on the roads.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Some car manufacturers don't put turn signals on their vehicles. BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, and Cadillac come to mind. Most of these cars don't seem to have them built-in. But I do believe there is an aftermarket turn signal package because a few (very few) do have signals.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[dr2chase]

"Some emergency situations" occur how often? No doubt, for every safety feature on a car there is some fringe case that it makes worse, but the net is (usually) better. What if you *needed* to lock up your brakes and slam the car into a skid, and the ABS prevented it? But overall, ABS is a good thing. We (humans) seem easily distracted by "fault", "intent", and "blame", when it would make a lot more sense to just try to minimize the body count.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[jersey_emt]

Technically, NJ laws state that a turn signal isn't enough notice. The way the law is written, you are required to honk your horn before changing lanes. Seriously.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[robi5]

so if there are no cars that could use my signal than I will not turn it on.

You should also signal to those drivers you're not aware of. Maybe traffic code says things for a reason. But if it's "invent your own traffic rules" day, then I guess anything goes :-)

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

if there are no cars that could use my signal than I will not turn it on.

Ok, so what if there are cars that you don't see? Or maybe you see other cars but you think they don't care about your signal. What gives you the right to decide for them whether or not they want to see your turn signal?

The most important reason to ALWAYS use your turn signal -- even if nobody is around -- is just to form a solid habit. So much so that it should feel strange to turn or change lanes without using your turn signal. If you have this solid habit of using your turn signals every time, you don't need to worry about analyzing every situation to determine who may or may not need to see your turn signals (and sometimes be wrong) and concentrate on the parts of driving that actually do need your brainpower. Just do it.

If you're worried about leaving the signal on afterwards, maybe you should be paying more attention to your driving.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[cbiltcliffe]

Or, perhaps, you dumbAsses(tm) could just *slow down* and merge BEHIND whoever you think isn't "letting you in".

Then it'd just be the next car back that wasn't "letting them in."

This situation actually happens. Don't discount it just because you live somewhere where drivers have at least half a clue.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[aardvarkjoe]

As far as they are concerned, I'm one of those idiots, even though I am taking deliberate steps to avoid known-dangerous driving. Obviously, I think THEY are the idiots. At least one of us is wrong.

Not necessarily. You could both be idiots.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Actually they do come with turn signals, but they use special synthetic DOT 7 blinker fluid that is difficult to find and most oil change shops are unaware of this need as they can barely remember to change the oil filter. As this needs to be changed with every oil change the signals cease to function after a short time of neglect. This is much like the Lucas wiring harness smoke that people would in inadvertently let out of their older British vehicles.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[gumpish]

if there are no cars that could use my signal than I will not turn it on.

You know why motorcycles are dangerous? It's because of people who assume they know what's in (or not in) their blind spot and can't be bothered to signal, let alone actually do a head check.

How about checking your pretense to omniscience at the door and just fucking signalling?

Thanks.

work zones / new pavement with out lines

[Joe_Dragon]

In works zones some times you see lines all over the place will the AI be smart and auto trun off when it sees that?

Also on new pavement you see the temp lines that may not be picked up the AI.

`why not stop the car?

[MollyB]

The idea that we should promote drowsy driving by making it (hypothetically) less fatal to do so is laughably absurd. Sometimes a driver needs to swerve to miss an accident occurring--no time to signal, so into the pileup we go? Hmm...

Re:`why not stop the car?

[Delarth799]

You fail to realize a great number of things and assume some really crazy ones. Your assuming the AI will take complete control of the steering and apply massive force not allowing for change. When in reality it will be almost certainly be a very gentle steer since it doesn't take much to correct some drifting. Also when you drift your not using your steering wheel to do it. Cars without perfectly aligned wheels drift one way or the other and slight curves in the road and other factors will also cause slight drifts as well, that's why you keep a hand on the wheel at all times. When you INTEND or NEED to change lanes you actually use the steering wheel so the people who designed this, which most people here seem to think are complete morons, probably were smart enough to design the AI so an application of a certain amount of turning power to one degree or another will stop it from vibrating and not trying to steer you back.

Re:`why not stop the car?

[icebike]

The idea that we should promote drowsy driving by making it (hypothetically) less fatal to do so is laughably absurd. Sometimes a driver needs to swerve to miss an accident occurring--no time to signal, so into the pileup we go? Hmm...

From the linked story, (which you clearly didn't read):

When the system detects the car is approaching the edge of the lane without a turn signal activated, the lane marker in the icon turns yellow and the steering wheel vibrates to simulate driving over rumble strips. If the driver doesn't respond and continues to drift, the lane icon turns red and EPAS will nudge the steering and the vehicle back toward the center of the lane. If the car continues to drift, the vibration is added again along with the nudge. The driver can overcome assistance and vibration at any time by turning the steering wheel, accelerating or braking.

The return to lane feature only works if you start to drift into the other lane, not if you actively turn into the other lane, or supply any other common control input to let the system know you are in fact paying attention.

Its not too hard to distinguish an alert driver at the wheel from someone nodding off, because a normal driver supplies 10 to 30 small control movements to the steering wheel per minute (Steering Reversal Rate), and these are typically Greater than 2 degrees and less than 6 degrees regardless of road curvature or lack there of. Once this rate falls to less than 5 reversals per minute, the car's computer can assume from this single measurement alone that the driver is getting drowsy, and when there are almost no reversals at all, that the driver has fallen asleep.

So the mere presence of control frequent movements on the wheel would sufficient to distinguish an intentional lane cross from an unintentional one.

There is a large amount of research already available on the web about his stuff. Google steering wheel reversal rate. This stuff has been known and measured for decades.

Is this a poor mans self driving car?

[trout007]

So if I get on the highway can I set my cruise control and take my hands off the wheel?

Re:More of a distractionary feature.

[Trepidity]

"Proper, US-sized engine blocks" aren't selling well, and when you consider the cost savings they'd forego if they didn't share parts between their US, European, and Asian lines, are even less cost-effective to sell.

Re:Winter

[tipo159]

Then the camera won't be able to see the lines, now will it?

Do you spend much time driving in winter conditions? Sometimes two lanes in the direction of travel end up effectively reduced to one with the painted lane divider line clearly visible in the middle of the lane. Around curves, the position of the painted lane divider line will shift relative to the track of the lane of travel.

I can't imagine that there won't be a disable button for this feature for stuff like winter driving.

Re:Sedans?

[Trepidity]

A "sedan" in US English is what UKians call a "saloon car".

I'm not sure the UK wins less ridiculous name on this one, unless your saloon car also has swinging wooden doors, serves alcohol, and has several cowboys as passengers.

exactly how far behind are they?

[Anonymous Coward]

from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_departure_warning_system

snippets:

In 2007 Infiniti offered a newer version of this feature, which it called the Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) system. This feature utilizes the vehicle stability control system to help assist the driver maintain lane position by applying gentle brake pressure on the appropriate wheels.

In 2004, Toyota added a Lane Keeping Assist feature to the Crown Majesta which can apply a small counter-steering force to aid in keeping the vehicle in its lane.

2003: Honda launched its Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS) on the Inspire.[13][14] It provides up to 80% of steering torque to keep the car in its lane on the highway.

Another feature

[McDrewbie]

How about after say 3 times the car has to enable this feature, it removes all control from the driver, keeps their belt buckled, and drives them to the nearest 12-hr Driving Course for a re-upper.

What does it do if you miss the Ford dealership?

[rcpitt]

At oil change time when you go to turn into the Mr. Lube the steering wheel resists, the doors and windows lock, the radio turns to a Ford oil change commercial and you're driven to the nearest Ford dealership

Will it wake me when my exit's coming up?

[outsider007]

Also I'd like to request a 'snooze bar' feature, sometimes I like to get a few more minutes sleep before getting off the highway.

Re:More of a distractionary feature.

[The Master Control P]

We're sorry that the average American can't afford a 350hp V8 penis compensator under the hood any more. Complaints can be filed with OPEC to your right.

The single best law that could be enforced....

[wealthychef]

is to force people to always leave at least 3 car lengths between themselves and the car in front of them on the freeway, including onramps and exits. (metering lights effectively create this situation, and they do work). This way, people could always merge, change lanes, etc. Once a merge or lane change was accomplished, another merge or lane change by the same car should not be allowed until proper distance is established from the car in front again. If the police would simply enforce this one law ruthlessly, road conditions would improve dramatically. The preponderant reason for traffic jams is people not letting others merge or execute needed maneuvers, and people making sudden lane changes, both of which cause sudden braking, which is amplified backwards through traffic. Smooth driving, even under severely packed conditions, would alleviate almost all traffic jams.

Re:Keeping Dangerous Drivers on the Road

[swonkdog]

... Rumble strips violently rock the whole car and make a loud, disturbing noise.

That sound may be disturbing if you are a responsible driver who may for one reason or another have momentarily lapsed in control of your vehicle. Out in Las Vegas the sun destroys painted lines so quickly that they have more or less given up repainting them and now delineate lanes with little round plastic domes. I've seen many times where a drunk driver will use that 'loud, disturbing noise' to navigate. They call it driving by Braille. You and I consider that noise to be disturbing, they consider it to be reassuring. It's one of the reasons that I will absolutely not be out on the roads tonight (New Years Eve).