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When the driver takes the back seat in a smart car

Last Updated 18 November 2014, 16:26 IST

The race is on. Many countries are working on a functional and practical driverless car, also known as an autonomous car.

There are a few prototypes and some have already had their trials. Others are functioning in a limited sphere.

Driverless - or autonomous - vehicles “drive themselves” with the help of artificial intelligence. Sensory equipment such as cameras, radar and lasers help such vehicles “see” the road ahead, detecting objects and how fast they are moving, and allowing the vehicle to mimic the decisions a human driver would make in any given situation. Global Positioning System (GPS), helps the vehicle pinpoint its location.

One such car, the Navia, developed at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), is already functional. Singapore’s first clean and green driverless shuttle transportation system shuttles passengers on a pre-programmed route between NTU and JTC Corporation’s (JTC) CleanTech Park. 

This planned route represents a real world scenario of shuttling passengers within a short range, with varying topography and pre-defined routes. “Navia can carry eight passengers and has a maximum speed of 20.1 kmph. Navia is manufactured by Induct Technologies, in partnership with NTU and JTC and with the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board,” informs Nilesh Y Jadhav, Programme Director, Energy Research Initiative at NTU.

System of lasers

The Navia features touchscreen navigation and an electric motor. It even parks itself atop its charger when not out ferrying folks around town. A system of lasers and sensors detects anything that might be in the Navia’s way and allows the vehicle to properly avoid obstacles in real time.

Initially, it could pave the way for the integration of autonomous vehicles in Singapore’s transport system to alleviate the “first mile, last mile” transport problem. 

The first and final legs of a journey are the typical potential bottlenecks in a transportation system faced by urban cities. Both concepts of a driverless transport and an efficient electric transport are at the forefront of research for personal transportation, last-mile transportation, and for logistics applications in leading automotive companies around the world.

A two-year collaboration will see the Energy Research Institute at NTU test and optimise Navia and enable it to intermingle safely with traffic in Singapore, as well as improving electric vehicle battery reliability and charging speeds. It would be possible in a smart city like Singapore, which has already introduced Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system for traffic management, which has helped to tweak road usage patterns since its implementation.

“NTU, and BMW, at its Future Mobility Lab, are focusing on advanced mobility concepts, advanced routing, mapping, parking constraints, prediction algorithms, flexible car usage technology,” says Jadhav. NTU’s competence in e-vehicles, with numerous collaborations, which also includes an e-bus and e-scooter, is fuelled by more than 125 research scientists, know-how in batteries, IT systems, vehicle engineering and infrastructure.

There are a few limitations to what the Navia can do such as the range of its operations and its present low horsepower. 

However, NTU calls it a “last mile” vehicle. Their aim is to provide a transport that can navigate sprawling university campuses, airports, theme parks, and hospital complexes. Nevertheless, it is quite suitable for a city-state like Singapore or for that matter other city-states like Monaco or Dubai.

Efficiency of electric cars

In a parallel and recent development, which can impact efficiency of electric cars, NTU has developed ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in two minutes. With the batteries, which have a life span of more than 20 years, electric cars will be able to increase their range dramatically with only five minutes of charging, which is on par with the time needed to pump petrol for the current cars.

Besides NTU, National University of Singapore (NUS) too has made a driverless vehicle called the Shared Computer Operated Transport (Scot), launched in January 2014 by the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (Smart) and itself. 

It would drive programmed routes. The car, which seats four and has a top speed of 130 kmph, uses laser sensors with a 30-metre range to detect and avoid obstacles in its path. 

It also uses remote sensing technology that allows it to function without relying on the Global Positioning System. The researchers also wrote the maps used by Scot to get from place to place. Such cars are being tested in a number of places, including Britain, Australia and the US. Three cities across Britain will be selected to host driverless car trials from next year, with each test to last between 18 and 36 months starting in January 2015.

Autonomous cars

In the United States, automakers are working tirelessly to get autonomous cars on roadways. The testing of driverless cars has already been approved in California, Nevada and Florida, in the United States.

Odd though it may seem, even Google, the online search engine giant has related technologies it can put to good use in a driverless vehicle in Google Maps and Street View. The company launched 100 vehicles at its California headquarters on May 27. 

The cute little two-seater has only a panic button and a start button, no steering wheel or pedals. Its top speed is limited to 25 mph (40 kmph).

Researchers from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, have claimed that driverless cars could be within the price range of the average person in just ten years, made possible by a new ‘eyes and ears’ technology developed for them. The technology comprises a dozen different sensors installed in an average car, paired with an algorithm that processes the large amount of data received. 

This creates meaningful information which tells the car the nature and location of obstacles.

This autonomous car, created through a joint project between Curtin, Daimler (the research arm of Mercedes-Benz) and Ulm University in Germany, would be commercially viable because it does not need to be connected to the Internet and can be produced at a low cost.

Driverless cars, as an innovative urban solution, could potentially serve as a convenient first mile-last mile transport mode within a residential town, leading to decreased reliance on cars. 

It can restore mobility for the blind and handicapped. It has been said that ‘where there is a wheel, there is a way’. But for now, only in the future, you wouldn’t need a driver.

(The author was in Singapore at the invitation of Ministry of Communication and Information, Singapore)

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(Published 18 November 2014, 16:26 IST)

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