Google Patents Crumpling Car Safety System

Google is known for its expertise in every field. It provides various kinds of information over varying subjects within a flick of seconds, because of its efficiency people from all age groups belonging to several different fields are aware of this dynamic search engine called Google; which is worldwide famous. Google have come up with a technology that can control a car’s system so that the risk of car crash can be avoided to a greater extent.

Google has come up with a system that grants the car to get crumpled up from before so that the risk of car crash can be reduced. It has suggested several ways to build up panels on the car’s circumference so even if a crash takes place unexpectedly neither the passengers, nor the pedestrian or any other object is harmed.

They are planning to develop a technology that will enable the panels to get coupled with the help of sensor data that will easily detect the object that is approaching the car and will take immediate measures, so eventually the crash can be avoided. This possibility was seconded by AA, retorting on the fact that several manufacturers of car are on the run to develop ways that will minimize the intensity of injuries even if the crash takes place.

Some details have been provided by the US granters on the different ways to fit in panels related to bodywork on the cars. A section of bumber wings is to be fixed to the cars that can be broken down with the help of actuators on the chassis of the Google Car. Automatically before the impact the actuators on the car’s chassis would give a signal, leading to the breaking down of pins that would enable the panel to halt back.

An alternative was also suggested where the panels would be fixed to the hinges or to the grooves, so the panel could be pulled immediately when it comes in contact with an object. A further note is added to this accident prone car where a control system would be infused to the cars that can run even without drivers.

If any of the parts of the car move out of the way then the force by which the car will collide to the other object that may be reduced, this will in turn reduce the serious damage of life, car and other objects. Henceforth, if this development is seriously carved out then the consequences would always bear a positive connotation.

The data sensors available in the car will check out the size and the weight of the object that is approaching the car and will accordingly take measures so that the crash can be avoided and if not avoided then the risk of injuries can be reduced. This is a very big hike that is being provided by Google that will ensure more safety on roads. The car holders will no longer have to worry for their life’s or their car’s well being.

Waymo, Google's Self Driving Car Company

Google has been researching and developing a whole new level of driverless car technology for the past 7 years. Now Google has made their project into a new company named WAYMO. This company is under the Google’s parent company Alphabet. WAYMO is a technology based company which is made with an intention to make the self driving car to be safe to transport people and things and to be put a wide range of use and availability.

The company’s main focus is not to develop the self driving cars but to develop that technology in a effective and efficient way so that it can be widely put to use and easily available for other car developers. Now the testing of the project is made under all different scenario and this technology which is developed must be very useful and very simple to use and shouldn’t be complicated. Thus it can benefit everyone including public transport system. This technology can save time and distance and will be of much benefit. The WAYMO Company won’t be making cars whereas it will be fitting these technology advancement in that car.

The “Koala Cars” is a small car which is currently used by Google for testing and development of its self driving technology. The Fiat Chrysler seems to be the first car to come out with the Google’s software equipped who signed a deal with Google for its self driving technology in the company’s Pacifica mini vans this deal was made between the companies on May.

The development of this technology was started 7 years before in Google lab and now is being made ready to be put into production after a test made for 2.3 million miles in its fully robot controlled vehicle. There will a giant leap made by the company to put its developing technology in an finished car and to make it available to the public. They are in the process of developing more map routes, to make the user enjoy a smoother ride and make navigations very accurate. There must be a proper system to navigate and drive the vehicle in heavy snow covered road and in heavy rain in simple this technology must be able to adaptable in all weather.

On October 2015 it turned out to be a remarkable event for Google when the company gave the first full automatic car ride to a blind man in Texas and no one accompanied him on his journey. He was travelled in one of the Koala cars in Texas travelling through the public roads of Austin.

Google has developed and tested many project and everything is very special and unique whereas compared to this feature Google has been doing a good job and developing us to the future. Many people may ask “is it possible for us to physically not drive a car but to reach our destination safely?” well Google might and will give answers to these types of questions in the upcoming future.

Google Self-Driving Car Hits A Bus

Google’s Popular Self-Driving Cars Involved in a Crash

It may not be the first time that one of Google’s popular self-driving cars had been involved in a crash though it may be the first time it had triggered one. Google would be meeting with California’s Department of Motor Vehicles – DMV for discussion on the incident and identify the blame. The car had been travelling at 2mph on February 14 and had pulled out in front of a public bus that was going at 15mph.

The person in the Google vehicle had reported that he presumed that the bus would slow down to let the car out and hence he did not supersede the car’s self-driving computer. The crash had taken place in Mountain View in the vicinity of Google’s headquarters. Google had mentioned in a statement that they clearly bear some responsibility because if their car had not moved, there would have been a collision.

Considering that the test driver was of the belief that the bus would be going slow or stop to permit them to merge in the traffic, and that there would be adequate space to do so.The self-driving cars of the company had clocked up well over million miles across different states in the US and till now had reported only minor `fender benders’ which is an American slang for minor collision.

Google Refined its Self-Driving Process

Other road users were to be blamed in all of those cases. Google tends to release monthly report specifying the testing of its self-driving technology and ahead of the report’s publication of February, due on Tuesday, a traffic incident filing had been made public by the DMV.

The report read that `the Google AV – autonomous vehicle, test driver saw the bus approaching in the left side mirror but believed the bus would stop or slow to allow the Google AV to continue. Approximately three second later, as the Google AV was re-entering the centre of the lane, it made contact with the side of the bus.

 The Google AV was operating in autonomous mode and travelling at less than two mph while the bus was travelling at around 15mph at the time of contact’. The report stated that the movement of the car were made more complex by the presence of sandbags on the road. Google has informed that it has now refined its self-driving process.

Self-Driving Computer Similar Legal Treatment as Human Driver

Google has mentioned that henceforth, their cars will understand more deeply that buses would be less likely to yield to them than other types of vehicles and hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in future. If DMV tends to consider the Google car to be at fault for the collision, it would be perceived as a setback for the ambitious autonomous vehicle plans of the company.

The bus crash had taken place just four days after a legal breakthrough for the self-driving project. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had informed Google that it would probably give the self-driving computer similar legal treatment as human driver and that decision paved the way for self-driving cars without any distinctive controls like a steering wheel or pedals.

Google Car: User Interface For Displaying Internal State Of Autonomous Driving System

Google has long been creating news with its driverless car both for good and bad reasons. It has even registered the car and a company under its parent company to ensure a fine streamlined approach for making cars. Its testing with driverless cars has engaged with some unwanted accidents on minor scale, which is helping, in perfecting the vehicle.

The driverless automobile is still far from becoming a reality and it won’t be happening within next few years. Though currently it is in news for the new patent application, which shows that tech giant will be bringing some manual control options in its driverless car.

New manual controls to offer better driving experience

Google team of techs has termed the new addition of the manual controls as ‘arm the chauffer’ in the literal sense. This new feature helps in adding an arm on the steering column, which results in activating the automatic driving mode, and it works vice versa by restoring the manual control.

The transition from automatic to manual and manual to automatic is quite quick and it is almost similar to switching on and off the high beams. There is heightened support, which is quite intuitive in nature if a driver touches the pedal, or steering wheel either suddenly or with force then manual controls are activated by default. In simple words driver will be able to get the controls back in case he or she wishes to make any abrupt changes in the driving by taking some new roads or stopping by at some point.

How beneficial will be this new feature? 

This patented feature will allow a driver to take control of the vehicle back from the autopilot within a matter of few seconds. This feature allows a sublime and quick change between the driverless driving mode and manual drive mode, which is quite similar to the flight’s auto pilot mode.

With autopilot mode activated, one can sit back, relax and catch the wondrous scenes fleeting across the roads during long road trips. The driverless car and driver will work in close relation with the GPS and inbuilt driving assistant for using the driverless car.

This feature will enhance safety levels

The driverless cars being tested by many car manufacturers and Google has shown that it possess better safety records when coupled with humans behind the wheel but on its own it doesn’t that kind of record. This feature addition in Google’s driverless car will help in enhancing the levels of security to a greater extent. Google’s upcoming driverless technology will certainly be boosted by human control and with their experience and judgment in driving.

Does this feature show Google backing away from earlier stance? 

Google has for long taken a stance of developing a completely free from human intervention automatic driving technology which didn’t go well with many people. It should be also noted that laws also forbid to handle controls completely to robots or technology and it might be the reason that Google is now thinking about bringing manual controls in the driverless vehicle.

Automakers, Google Take Different Roads to Automated Cars

Google had pursued the dream of creating one of a kind of fully automated vehicle but till now it is still experimenting with its self driving car. An automated vehicle pioneer namely Raj Rajkumar has recently stated that automated cars will a take a considerable time and effort to emerge and it will require a close partnership and monitoring by the human for a long time. This might come as a jolt for the Google self-driving car program head Chris Urmson who had earlier stated that Google is on the verge of successfully bringing a fully automated vehicle devoid of any input from human by 2020.

Google aims at improving the automated technology

Raj Rajkumar and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon have emphasized the need of having a solid human intervention at different stages of automated vehicles development. Having a car, which possesses partial automation, will certainly help in reducing few accident risks but it will also end in creating new safety challenges.

A fully automated vehicle or system will not be a right option at the moment as it might lead to scuffle between the system and human. For example, while driving if a automated system suddenly demands the users to make decision regarding the routes then it will put the vehicle users and driver in a fix.

Google is taking a different approach at building the automation strategy, which will be better in every aspect and devoid of any safety issue and it will be available for open buying within next few years.

Major vehicle makers focus Rajkumar’s ways

In the past few years, major vehicle makers such as General Motors and Volkswagen along with the Tesla Motors had showed their interest in the self-driving cars. But these mainstream car players are focusing on the path of automation laid-down by Rajkumar which asks for human intervention during the different stages of development. In order to get advantage over the Google’s self driving car these players had kicked off their different plans of introducing the automated cars. Tesla is currently testing its AutoPilot system, which will offer a hands-free highway cruising along with automated parking capability to the vehicle.

It should be noted that technology which allows the vehicle to park itself is already in the market and many vehicles are getting equipped with the system which brings automatic braking and corrects the steering of vehicle along with maintain a safe distance from other vehicles plying on the road.

Time to retake the control of vehicle has to be optimized

The moment of alerting a driver and by the time a driver can retake the control during the emergency is one of the major sources of worry for the automated car manufacturers. Various studies conducted on the partially automated vehicle have resulted in an average response time of 17 seconds in which a driver is able to retake the control of the vehicle. This means that if an alert is generated by the automated system (vehicle is running at 60miles per hour) and by the time a person will able to regain the control of vehicle it will have covered more than a quarter of a mile.

How Google Quietly Revved Up Its Very Own Car Company

Google is all set to surprise the big names in automobile industry by secretly registering its car company way back in 2011. For a long time Google tried to work with big names in the car industry to develop its ambitious self driving cars. At the North American Auto Show, which was held in January, Google announced that they were having serious talks with major car plays such as General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler.
 
The project lead for the Google’s self driving cars Chris Urmson even went on to say that manufacturing cars is hard and a tedious job which is aptly done by the car manufacturers and it will be wise to find a partnership rather do everything by oneself. Unfortunately, no partnership had come into being till now.

Chris Urmson emerges as Google Auto LLC CEO

The most viable reason of not coming up with any partnership is that Google already had its own Company named Google Auto LLC registered in California. This company is registered as a passenger vehicle manufacturer with both the national and international organization across the world. Google subsidiary as ‘car manufacturer company’ received its license last year as a dignified car maker in California and being headed by no other by than Chris Urmson.

Legal documents brings more insights

All this is revealed by the Guardian had after obtaining legal documents through Public Records Act request in California. Legal documents even show that Google Auto was formed as a limited liability company, which was used initially by the parent company to modify and test its fleet of driverless Lexus SUV’s. Google Auto LLC finds itself mentioned as the sole manufacturer of 23 autonomous Lexus cars registered in California. Interestingly all the vehicles have been involved a number of minor accidents in and around Google’s home town of Mountain View. However, no law suits were filed in these accidents and it is quite common among the large businesses to set up subsidiaries in order to try new and risky projects.

Signs of Google’s rising ambition

Over the years, Google had shown incredible sign in the rise of its driving technology marvels. But nobody had perceived this might have grown with presence of a secret car making company in the veil. Google Auto LLC was in being since 2011 and just last Google appointed Chris Urmson as the manager of the Google Auto which gave him the reigns of company’s daily operations. By the nest day Google took the world by surprise when it announced that it is all set to build 100 prototype self-driving cars right from the scratch. The prototype cars created a sensation when it was said that these cars will not contain any steering wheels, accelerator or brakes.

Google Auto LLC applied even for the VIN codes in order to identify each of its self-driving cars like other car manufacturer. It organized emission testing in California and in order to avoid safety requirements and crash, test it and kept its cars lightweight with low speed capability. All of these activities simply show that Google’s ambition is always to go through research to the end product with doubt.

Google Street View Cars will Soon Measure Pollution

Recently a firm by the name of Aclima, building environmental sensors has teamed up with the web giants Google, and in turn has set out with a novelty…the street car of Google that is equipped with environmental sensors and a load of other new technologies that is capable of accumulating a vast and varied amounts of data directly from the street while this supposed techy piece of automobile shall cruise the asphalt. The greatest implication of this novelty is its radical technological outfit that makes this vastly suitable for some of the mundane street jobs which are yet of greatest value…namely monitoring pollution.

The hardware placed on these vehicles is equipped with sensors that are capable of measuring the components of air like nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) etc.

Though the whole idea is still in its early foetal stage, it can be expected that in near future there will be a time when the atmosphere information will be added even to the Google maps. The joint venture by both the companies has already had their set of trial runs and experiments on the streets of Denver.

Three of the Google vehicles fitted with their new outfit cruised the streets of the city for about a month and gathered information. A remarkable 150 data points was the net accumulation, a result of 750 hours of driving. The soon to be expected new development in this mass project is its shift to a new ground for experimentation and further modification.

San Francisco has been chosen as the new ground for operations, where local scientists are expected to take up quite an important role in developing the whole setup to a finer tuning, thereby making it conducive to this new locale and also increase it potential. A more viable method to utilize this gathered information is also on the agenda to make this even more conducive and productive.

What’s more? 

Usually stationary air pollution sensors are placed across the city that measure and give a feedback of the air pollution in a specific locale. This monitoring setup is a design dedicated at air quality regulation. However, this is barely capable of providing a detailed picture of a community or an urban area, and its exact pollution situation to the people.

The new cars fitted with the new technology are more conducive at mapping and setting up a friendly model of the environment, which is much more specific and easily understandable; thereby opening a new portal for the masses. A quite interesting happening is the already successful use of these street cars to measure gas leaks.

American Business Act on Climate Pledge

Google and twelve other American businesses have already signed the American Business Act on Climate Pledge and thereby committing to a 140 billion dollar in low carbon investments. Google themselves have also decided to power its operations with 100 percent renewable energy.

What is worth noting in all these new developments in the field of tracing the rising pollution levels across the globe is the simple hope for a better morrow where even if the world is not much greener, one will have the option to choose a greener pocket in his or her locality.

Google and Uber May Become Rivals

After the problems faced due to drivers in Delhi Uber has begun plans on researching self driven cars which would not require any drivers. In fact any company that had to go through what Uber went through a couple of months ago would logically do this.

However, the real problem is that Google has already launched driver less cars long ago in 2010. It is postulated that such cars have already been given to its staff and might come up with an idea of enlarging the service as a business venture soon.

Logger Heads

Google in 2013 has invested around $250m in Uber, owing to its worldwide operation in more than 200 cities, however the Delhi controversy of drivers has brought a small decline in its operation. Uber at present announced its plans in self driving cars teaming up with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, which is actually expected to fund the Uber Advanced Technologies Center, according to its post in a blog.

Google with experience in the field also seems to have considerations on rolling out its own car- hailing service, if reports in Bloomberg are to be believed. An Unnamed source claiming to be close to Uber’s Board of Directors seems to hint about screenshots of app-based car rental service, which is already on roads for its staff.

Google’s Denial

However when Google has been asked for a response on this by BBC, they got a reply “think you'll find Uber and Lyft work quite well. We use them all the time."

This somehow sounds indistinct and does not give any clear cut idea whether Google would want to begin a new driver less cab service. Of course, Since the ground work is already over and Google has gained enough experience to run the show on its own its mulling over such an idea cannot be ruled out altogether.
However, speculations are still on stake because Google holds a fair share in Uber and going into business on its own might turn ruinous to Google too. Thus it is expected that Google would surely be testing the water before taking the plunge.

Uber’s Research Partner

Carnegie Mellon University which has partnered with Uber to assist in the research and technology aspect of this new venture has not left any stones unturned. They have proposed to develop newer technologies that would give proper safety while travelling and to look at maps also.

The University has enough learned and experienced faculty and staff who would surely be enthusiastic to assist such an endeavor. Research in the areas of mapping, safety while on the road and autonomy technology are planned to be conducted with combined effort of the University and National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC). Uber is very positive with the new project and is planning to take it ahead all the way.

Less Know Facts about the New Sensation- Self-Driving Cars

There were huge number of predictions made for the 21st century, which included the cure for cancer, people spending their weekends on the Moon and even personal jetpacks. Keeping some these both on the funnier as well as serious side, none of these predictions have come true apart from one exception and that is the “driverless cars”.

Market and Search giant Google currently holds the topmost position of owning the most famous – driverless cars. The company has been experimenting on this concept since 2009 and the experimental models have clocked nearly 750,000 miles on the roads of California and that too without a driver as well as without any accidents.

Researchers working at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Navlab were the first ones to build an autonomous vehicle that too in the year 1984. The year 2010 saw arrival of a semi automatic van, which was built by the researchers working at the University of Parma. This semi automatic van was able to drive a round trip from Italy to Shanghai. This trip was accounted to be more than 8000 miles.

There are some of the innovative technologies meant for these kinds of vehicles but now they have also been adopted by the mainstream vehicles. An example of this technology is the adaptive cruise control, which is meant to apply brakes whenever it detects a slow traffic ahead. If we see on the positive side of this technology, in a normal driving condition, a vehicle, which offers radar, camera, and even advanced software, can be easily considered the best driver compared to human beings.

These vehicles are also made to perform some of the task, which we might not like to do while driving. One of the tasks, which daunt every driver, is the lack of parking space and parking the car itself. These driverless cars have been equipped with software, which allows them to park the car themselves.

This feature has gained so much of attention that companies like Ford, BMW, Lexus, and Audi are also offering vehicles with similar feature. Another feature adopted by 2014 Mercedes S-Class sedan is that it can negotiate stop-and-go traffic and that too without any inputs from the driver. According to director of electrical and active safety R&D, John Capp, General Motors is planning to introduce a new range of Cadillac’s, which will be equipped with Super Cruise control. This feature will allow the drivers to merge in the freeway and then the car with drive on its own and steer itself. A similar feature will be adopted by Tesla’s Model D sedan and Volvo.

At present, we only have semi autonomous cars, which will still need a human to sit at the wheel and take control of the cruise at most of the time. As Google and Parma researchers are working on their prototypes, we can soon expect fully autonomous cars in the next decade or so. The day is not far, wherein we will see cars without drivers, steering wheels, and even brakes.

Google to add manual controls and steering wheel in driverless car

So looks like even the software giant have to bend to certain rules. They are being forced to add manual controls which includes steering and pedals, the before starting the test run on the road. This rule has been slapped to avoid any road mishap in case their software failure in the vehicle. However good this car may be but it lacks manual human controls. California's Department of Motor Vehicles doesn’t look to be too impressed with the idea of a car which has only start and stop button operable by humans. The road testing has been banned for this car of Google unless these rules get implemented.

What was the concept behind this car? 

The main idea behind developing this car was to put an person at ease as they don’t have to do anything apart from pressing the start button. But the California DMV states that the driver also should be able to drive the car.

The lead software engineer, Dmitri Dolgov stated that the technology was not 100% and it was deviating by crossing the permitted speed limit. He also stated that the car was able to go nearly 10mph more than the permissible limit for road safety. The rationale given to support this deviation was that it will ensure that car is able to keep up with the traffic and avoid in road obstruction.

Even after the justification, DMV rule has been made mandatory and Google will be to perform the necessary modifications before the car hits highways and public roads. This rule for Google will come into picture from September 16th, 2014. Any car after this date not having the modification will be deemed illegal. Google initially came up with a design which could be added to an existing car to achieve autonomous driving, however during the early part of 2014, they came up with this innovative idea and technology of driverless car.

What to expect now? 

Google is currently working on 100 prototypes of this autonomous car and developing a speed limit of 25mph. Temporary controls also expected to be added to these prototypes. This car is supposed to be tested in private roads with member of common public and later on it will tested on public roads (probably in next 2 years).

Even though Google has been literally forced to add manual steering wheel and pedal, but the giant doesn’t seem to be intimidated by the passed rule. One of the representatives of the company stated that even though manual controls will be added to the car, the users will be able to enjoy the self driving feature and even control it.

Google is still hoping that in the next two years, before the launch of the car, the authorities might show leniency in the rule. Once of concerns area could be the speed driving tickets and who is liable to pay the ticket and insurance issues that will need clearance. We have to wait and see the car in mainstream.

300,000 miles without an accident because of Google

Eric Schmidt assured a few weeks ago that Google accounted For the future safety. The numbers prove him right: after more than 300,000 miles, or about 480,000 miles, no accident has been criticized on the dozen or vehicle traffic. Knowing that this value far exceeds the lifespan of a conventional car, we can speak of good performance which ensures the safe character of the autonomous car.