I Can See Clearly Now: Smart Headlights Dodge Rain, Snow

Photo: Carnegie Mellon University

When it comes to headlight technology, not much has changed in the last several decades. LEDs are on the cusp of becoming standard issue and adaptive headlamps that turn with the wheel have been around for years. But a system from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University has the potential to change the way we see in adverse weather by illuminating the road around droplets of rain and snow.

As anyone who’s driven in a torrential downpour or a snow storm can attest, the road isn’t the only thing that gets lit up by the headlamps. Particles of snow and beads of water reflect light back at the driver, making bad visibility even worse. And that’s where Carnegie Mellon University’s Professor Srinivasa Narasimhan and his team come in.

By coupling a video camera with a digital light projector and a beam-splitter, the system can identify a raindrop as it falls into the headlight’s view. An on-board computer figures out the drop’s trajectory and then selectively turns off the bank of lights in the path of the rain.

All of this happens in 13 milliseconds, and because the detection and termination of the light happens so quickly, there’s no perceivable flicker to both the driver or oncoming vehicles.

The only downside is that the headlights can’t illuminate quite as far or as intense as standard, non-adaptive halogen lamps. But that’s just a product of the lights being intermittently turned on and off – a reasonable trade-off compared to seeing bits of road behind a wall of water or snow.

The other issue is accuracy. According to the research by Carnegie Mellon, the system detects particles around 70 percent of the time at about 20 mph, and drops precipitously as speed increases, with only 15 to 20 percent of droplets recorded in a 10-foot range when traveling at 62 mph.

Still, with the right assortment of ultra-small and ultra-powerful LEDs – or even lasers, something BMW is working on – a more accurate camera and a faster processor, the system could be feasible on a production vehicle. The only question now is what breed of “magic” Mercedes-Benz will brand it…

 
          

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NASA’s New (Astronaut-Carrying) Spacecraft Is Retro-Modern

Photo: NASA

This week at Cape Canaveral — not far from where NASA launched the first American into space 51 years ago, and the last Americans one year ago — the space agency welcomed its next generation of manned spacecraft. The first space-bound Orion capsule arrived in Florida, where final construction will take place before its first test flight, which is planned for 2014.

With all of the excitement surrounding SpaceX and some of the other private space ventures, it might be easy to overlook the fact that NASA is planning an ambitious effort to send astronauts beyond Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. Built by Lockheed Martin, the Orion was originally part of the now-canceled Constellation program first proposed by President Bush in 2004. Constellation was not funded in 2010, leaving Orion a spacecraft without a program.

NASA now touts Orion as the spacecraft that will do more than simply go to the moon. The agency talks of taking astronauts to an asteroid and even to Mars. Of course all of these plans require continued funding, something that the Orion program has already learned is far from guaranteed.

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From Ferrari to Fiat, a Look Back at Pininfarina’s Masterful Designs

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The Diabolical Corvette ZR1 Wants to Eat You Alive

CHEVYCOR12

Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
Horsepower: 630, 0-60 mph: 3.4 seconds,
Top speed: 205 mph, Lateral acceleration: 1.07 g's,
EPA city/hwy: 14/21 mpg

High-octane fuel. Ear-bleeding noise. Neck-snapping acceleration. Potential dismemberment. That’s what you get when you drive the 638-horsepower Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Death is also an option.

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What do you do with 638 ponies? Good question. Most people drive sane automobiles, and no sane car needs that much juice. But there is nothing sane or necessary about the ZR1. Like a lot of fast cars, it comes in black, which makes it look dangerous. Unlike a lot of fast cars, this thing actually is dangerous.

For the reasonable sum of $113,500—less than half the price of a Ferrari 458—you get carbon-fiber bodywork, indestructible carbon-ceramic brakes, a monstrous supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, and zero to 60 in 3.4 seconds. What the window sticker doesn’t tell you is how it’s all delivered. One word: painfully. Another: brutally. A third (five, actually): You will soil your underpants.

Sure, there are other evil cars out there. But the ZR1′s party trick—the diabolical core of its eight-cylinder heart—is how it convinces you that you’re in charge. You settle in behind the wheel, and it feels like any other car. Around town, it rides like a Cadillac. Yes, you think, I can handle this. And then you stab the throttle and the roar emanating from the exhaust is loud enough to cavitate your eyeballs. I want more, urges the animal-monkey core of your brain. I want to evacuate the premises, warns your lower intestine. One more time, whispers the Corvette. It’ll be fine, I promise.

Like most modern cars, the ZR1 features electronic stability control, a combination of sensors and computing power that works to keep you from driving the car into a ditch. After a few hundred miles, you’ll begin to think you don’t need it. You might even turn it off, tempting fate in exchange for feeling a little more alive. Then, of course, you’re right where it wants you. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

A version of this story originally appeared on Autopia in May.
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Study Shows Electronic Driver Aids Mostly Help, Occasionally Hurt

Image: Volvo Cars

The Highway Loss Data Institute, a division within the automaker-supported Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), released findings on how active safety systems help drivers when their vehicles are fitted with crash avoidance technology and adaptive headlamps. But interestingly, lane departure warning systems aren’t living up to their claimed potential. And in some cases, the tech may be increasing the number of crashes.

The study examines property damage liability (PDL) claims, meaning claims filed by a driver who’s been involved in a collision with another vehicle.

Unsurprisingly, vehicles fitted with collision avoidance systems that automatically alert the driver of an impending crash – and in the case of the Acura, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo vehicles involved in the study, automatically brake to avoid a collision – saw declines of up to 14 percent. The Acura and Mercedes vehicles lead the list, with Volvo’s autonomous braking system reducing crashes by 10 percent. However, the Volvo system the Institute tested also included lane departure and fatigue warning systems, and the IIHS hedges its findings by saying the inclusion of those systems could have an effect on the results.

Adaptive headlamps, which change direction based on the angle of the steering wheel, also reduce PDL claims by as much as 10 percent.

What wasn’t expected in the study were findings that lane departure warning systems, which alert the driver when they begin to veer outside their lane, increased the PDL claims, although the IIHS would only say “the increases were not statistically significant [and] the results suggest these particular systems aren’t reducing overall crashes.”

The IIHS points out that the two vehicles it tested with the lane departure warning system – one Buick and another Mercedes-Benz – faired the worst in the study, with the Volvo tester doing slightly better, although that system also came bundled with the auto-braking feature and fatigue warning system, which could negate some of the issues.

Early IIHS research indicated that lane departure warning systems would prevent over 7,000 fatal crashes each year, but those estimates were strictly theoretical, and this recent study puts those claims into question.

“Lane departure warning may end up saving lives down the road, but so far these particular versions aren’t preventing insurance claims,” says Matt Moore, vice president of HLDI. “It may be that drivers are getting too many false alarms, which could make them tune out the warnings or turn them off completely. Of course, that doesn’t explain why the systems seem to increase claim rates, but we need to gather more data to see if that’s truly happening.”

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