Make shows how to drive a car using an iPhone. John Boiles, a member of Austin, TX, based engineering collective Waterloo Labs, uses his iPod to control steering, brakes, and acceleration on a full-size automobile.
The gas and brake pedals are activated with slider controls. Steering takes advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer. Simply “turning” the iPhone clockwise or counter-clockwise allows the vehicle to steer.
In-vehicle data recorders tracked 50 teenage drivers in the UK over six months. The IVDRs, made by GreenRoad of San Francisco, monitors unsafe driving events, such as overly sharp turns, heavy acceleration, hard braking and fast lane-changes. The warning system was switched on halfway through the trial. From that point, red, yellow and green LEDs on the facia of a dashboard-mounted box told the drivers how they were faring. Sensors analyze up to 120 separate types of driving events. It combines in-vehicle technology with integrated Web-based applications that continuously rate driving skills.
Researchers in the EU are developing vehicles outfitted with wireless sensors and transponders to communicate with the vehicle in front of them to create a “road train”. The EU hopes to cut fuel consumption, journey times and congestion by linking vehicles together. A driver approaching his destination takes over control of his own vehicle, leaves the convoy by exiting off to the side and then continues on his own to his destination.
Personal rapid transit (PRT), doesn’t need a driver at all. You punch in your destination. The passenger’s request allocates a vehicle and instructs the vehicle on the required path. Each path is unique, ensuring there is no interaction between vehicles.
A pilot project at London Heathrow Airport, based on ULTra has been completed with the system expected to open to airport users in Spring 2010. Batteries on the 4 passenger vehicles are recharged when the vehicles are stationary. It uses rubber tires on its own designated guideway.
“We’re literally reinventing the wheel,” says William Mitchell, director of the Media Lab Smart Cities Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mitchell points to the revolutionary in-wheel traction and steering system of the CityCar, a stackable, all-electric, two-passenger vehicle that could radically alter personal urban transportation.
Other transit connectivity articles on Dailywireless include, Live 360 Degree Streaming Video, Google Earth Gets “Live” Overlay, Hands-free Vehicular Calling, Harris Cuts Fog of War, Shipboard AIS Gets a Satellite Swarm, SF Gets Solar Wi-Fi Bus Shelters, Ford Sync Dials 911, Proxim WiMAX for Washington Ferries, CradlePoint: Mobile WiFi/WiMAX Hot Spots, In-Vehicle Infotainment: Death Race.
