日志
车辆变得越来越智能(ZT)
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You're driving down the highway and your vehicle beeps a warning. It's not a problem with the car; instead, it's a text message, which your car reads to you.
Without even taking your hands off the wheel you can call or text back using voice recognition technology. The satellite navigation can even find a restaurant or shopping centre and direct you to it, all without breaking the law.
It may sound a bit far-fetched; more next century than next week. But it's not. In 2008 some of this technology is already available in cars in Europe and the United States and Australia.
The largest car manufacturers and small start-up businesses are all looking to turn your car into the ultimate mobile computing platform. Some of the technology is ready today, while some is still a long way down the track. But one things for certain: our cars are getting smarter.
Mercedes-Benz calls it Linguatronic and it operates via a small lever on the steering column. You can pair your phone using Bluetooth, a short- range wireless technology built into most new phones, with the car, and then use the Linguatronic system to access your address book.
It doesn't even need training to respond to your voice, and it's also useful for choosing routes on the built-in navigation system.
Below is a wrap-up of new in-car technologies.
Advanced satellite navigation systems
In-car navigation systems are getting smarter, says Chris Kearney, marketing manager for TomTom in Australia and New Zealand.
TomTom is developing a system called LiveSearch. "It's all about place and time relevant information, such as where you can get the cheapest price on something, how you can get there and so on," says Kearney.
Navman, another navigation company with significant market presence, agrees that navigation systems are getting smarter. "We have a product in Korea and the navigation system turns into a TV, so that passengers can watch it on long journeys," says Wendy Hammond, Navman Australia marketing director.
However, the whole point of navigation is to get you where you want to go, and provide you information on what's available once you get there. Hammond says that the next big thing in navigation is green routing, where you'll be able to ask the computer to tell you the most fuel efficient way of getting somewhere.
"If there are a lot of hills and traffic lights on your route, then the system can route you around those and make for a greener trip," she says.
Traffic systems and telematics
Greenness is also at the heart of intelligent traffic systems. That, and the ability to get you out of traffic jams.
"We're working to build a connection between vehicles and real time traffic information," says Intelematics chief executive Adam Game.
Intelematics provides telematics systems for Holden, Toyota and Mitsubishi in Australia. This means that they provide call centres, software, vehicle tracking and remote diagnostics for the manufacturers, who resell the service under their own brand name.
Holden sells the service under the name Holden Assist Ultra, which costs around $1900 for the system including a three year service contract.
Holden Assist Ultra puts a button on the rear-view mirror. If the driver needs assistance, say they're lost or someone in the car is sick, then they can push the button and be connected to a call centre.
The system will also detect if the vehicles airbags have been deployed. If they have, a call centre will contact the driver and ask them if they need assistance. If the driver does not respond within 30 seconds, the call centre will dispatch emergency services to the vehicles location, which is determined using GPS.
It can even unlock the car remotely if you accidentally locked the keys inside.
The next evolution of telematics services are systems that have been available for some time in Europe, and will soon be available in Australia.
Just launched by Intelematics, in collaboration with Ford, is the SUNA traffic network that will flow real time traffic information, including accidents and congestion, to portable and in-car navigation devices.
It uses a digital sub carrier on the FM band, which sounds rather complicated but essentially it's piggy-backing the traffic information, which Intelematics gets from traffic management centres around the country, underneath an FM radio signal.
Car hubs
Fiat calls it Blue&Me. Ford calls theirs Sync, but underneath it all is the same Microsoft technology that will also underpin in-car-systems that will appear in Hyundais and Kias sometime in the next couple of years.
Sync, which his available in almost every American market Ford, retails for around $US300. It acts as a hub for all of your personal electronics devices, including iPods and mobile phones, and uses your voice to control them.
Essentially these Microsoft systems are mini-PCs built into the car. They're smart enough to know when you receive a text message, and can read the text to you. You can either respond with a selection of canned messages, such as "I'm driving, cant talk now", or you can choose to initiate a call using the text message's mobile number.
iPods and other music devices are integrated using either a standard USB connector (this is the same connector used to hook up PCs with printers or thumb drives) or using the iPod dock connector. Once your personal music device is connected, you can call up playlists using voice commands, and you can even ask the system to play similar songs, again using a voice command.
Voice is also central to programming the navigation system. All you need to do is call up the navigation and ask it for your destination. This is similar to the Mercedes-Benz Linguatronic system, which lets you enter whole addresses using voice commands.
At present there are no plans to bring Sync or Blue&Me to Australia. However the Kia and Hyundai versions, which will make their US market debut in 2010, are slated to come to the Asia-Pacific region sometime after that.
Car to car communications
Imagine youre driving along and your in-car command system flashes up a warning "ice ahead". How did it know there was ice ahead? A car somewhere down the road encountered icy conditions and automatically broadcast a message to the cars following.
It's called car to car communications, and it's coming to a car near you sometime in the next decade.
All this technology exists today in prototype form, says Don Grimm, a senior researcher in the wireless systems and technology division of General Motors.
In the US there are six cars equipped with advanced vehicle to vehicle communications systems, and there's a further four in Europe.
"Realistically we are between five and 10 years out from this technology being introduced," he says.
Many cars already have multiple sensors, including radar for adaptive cruise control, park distance sensors, and GPS for mapping and location. General Motors envisages replacing all these different systems with a single system that can provide all round traffic intelligence.
GM isn't the only company working on this technology. Ford, Mercedes, Toyota and Honda are working with GM to make sure that the intelligent driving systems are compatible, regardless of which brand of car you driving.
All of which begs the question of whether the system will work given that only new cars will have it installed?
Grimm says that basic features, such as blind spot warnings, require only a fleet penetration of 10 to 20 per cent before the system becomes useful. Older cars could be retrofitted with some of the systems, including an antenna that provides information to the other cars around it.
"It's once you get to automated vehicle control that you need penetration levels of close to 100 per cent, "he says.
By that, he means the ability for the car to brake itself and come to a complete stop if it receives warning of an accident ahead.
And, of course, there's the science fiction future of your car being able to drive itself on the freeway. It's a future that Grimm says is perfectly feasible. "The time- is not too far away when a vehicle will be able to navigate itself and drive itself on the highway," he says.
We already have the adaptive cruise control systems needed. All that's needed are additional systems that will keep the car centred in the laneway. And the car needs to have the situational awareness of what is happening around it, and that's where the vehicle to vehicle communications systems come into play.
The other big question is how the car will communicate with the driver if theres a situation up ahead, or a car in the blindspot. One major way, says Mr Grimm, is via the seat of your pants. "We've found that the seat is a good way to perceive warnings," he says.
Traffic systems and telematics
Greenness is also at the heart of intelligent traffic systems. That, and the ability to get you out of traffic jams.
"We're working to build a connection between vehicles and real time traffic information," says Intelematics chief executive Adam Game.
Intelematics provides telematics systems for Holden, Toyota and Mitsubishi in Australia. This means that they provide call centres, software, vehicle tracking and remote diagnostics for the manufacturers, who resell the service under their own brand name.
Holden sells the service under the name Holden Assist Ultra, which costs around $1900 for the system including a three year service contract.
Holden Assist Ultra puts a button on the rear-view mirror. If the driver needs assistance, say they're lost or someone in the car is sick, then they can push the button and be connected to a call centre.
The system will also detect if the vehicles airbags have been deployed. If they have, a call centre will contact the driver and ask them if they need assistance. If the driver does not respond within 30 seconds, the call centre will dispatch emergency services to the vehicles location, which is determined using GPS.
It can even unlock the car remotely if you accidentally locked the keys inside.
The next evolution of telematics services are systems that have been available for some time in Europe, and will soon be available in Australia.
Just launched by Intelematics, in collaboration with Ford, is the SUNA traffic network that will flow real time traffic information, including accidents and congestion, to portable and in-car navigation devices.
It uses a digital sub carrier on the FM band, which sounds rather complicated but essentially it's piggy-backing the traffic information, which Intelematics gets from traffic management centres around the country, underneath an FM radio signal.
Car hubs
Fiat calls it Blue&Me. Ford calls theirs Sync, but underneath it all is the same Microsoft technology that will also underpin in-car-systems that will appear in Hyundais and Kias sometime in the next couple of years.
Sync, which his available in almost every American market Ford, retails for around $US300. It acts as a hub for all of your personal electronics devices, including iPods and mobile phones, and uses your voice to control them.
Essentially these Microsoft systems are mini-PCs built into the car. They're smart enough to know when you receive a text message, and can read the text to you. You can either respond with a selection of canned messages, such as "I'm driving, cant talk now", or you can choose to initiate a call using the text message's mobile number.
iPods and other music devices are integrated using either a standard USB connector (this is the same connector used to hook up PCs with printers or thumb drives) or using the iPod dock connector. Once your personal music device is connected, you can call up playlists using voice commands, and you can even ask the system to play similar songs, again using a voice command.
Voice is also central to programming the navigation system. All you need to do is call up the navigation and ask it for your destination. This is similar to the Mercedes-Benz Linguatronic system, which lets you enter whole addresses using voice commands.
At present there are no plans to bring Sync or Blue&Me to Australia. However the Kia and Hyundai versions, which will make their US market debut in 2010, are slated to come to the Asia-Pacific region sometime after that.
Car to car communications
Imagine youre driving along and your in-car command system flashes up a warning "ice ahead". How did it know there was ice ahead? A car somewhere down the road encountered icy conditions and automatically broadcast a message to the cars following.
It's called car to car communications, and it's coming to a car near you sometime in the next decade.
All this technology exists today in prototype form, says Don Grimm, a senior researcher in the wireless systems and technology division of General Motors.
In the US there are six cars equipped with advanced vehicle to vehicle communications systems, and there's a further four in Europe.
"Realistically we are between five and 10 years out from this technology being introduced," he says.
Many cars already have multiple sensors, including radar for adaptive cruise control, park distance sensors, and GPS for mapping and location. General Motors envisages replacing all these different systems with a single system that can provide all round traffic intelligence.
GM isn't the only company working on this technology. Ford, Mercedes, Toyota and Honda are working with GM to make sure that the intelligent driving systems are compatible, regardless of which brand of car you driving.
All of which begs the question of whether the system will work given that only new cars will have it installed?
Grimm says that basic features, such as blind spot warnings, require only a fleet penetration of 10 to 20 per cent before the system becomes useful. Older cars could be retrofitted with some of the systems, including an antenna that provides information to the other cars around it.
"It's once you get to automated vehicle control that you need penetration levels of close to 100 per cent, "he says.
By that, he means the ability for the car to brake itself and come to a complete stop if it receives warning of an accident ahead.
And, of course, there's the science fiction future of your car being able to drive itself on the freeway. It's a future that Grimm says is perfectly feasible. "The time- is not too far away when a vehicle will be able to navigate itself and drive itself on the highway," he says.
We already have the adaptive cruise control systems needed. All that's needed are additional systems that will keep the car centred in the laneway. And the car needs to have the situational awareness of what is happening around it, and that's where the vehicle to vehicle communications systems come into play.
The other big question is how the car will communicate with the driver if theres a situation up ahead, or a car in the blindspot. One major way, says Mr Grimm, is via the seat of your pants. "We've found that the seat is a good way to perceive warnings," he says.
