navigation – All about car

There are acres of driver aids in modern vehicles to help the driver navigate their way through an unfamiliar city. Satnav led the way and is now supported by a cast of colourful heads-up displays, audible alerts and vibrating seats (hold your rude comments about that last one, please). Luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover is working on a steering wheel that could provide another directional cue for drivers, one which doesn’t require taking one’s eyes off the road, citing driver distraction as one of the major contributors to road traffic collisions around the world. The company has a point—during your commute home this evening, take note how many drivers are eyeing their smart device, hoovering a Big Crunch, or talking into their phones while holding it horizontally like a slice of pizza. Jag says its “sensory steering wheel” can help address this problem. It uses heat to inform drivers where to turn, when it’s safe to change lanes, and warn of impending doom if another vehicle is trying to occupy the same spot in the space-time continuum. A steering wheel developed by Jaguar Land Rover could help keep drivers’ eyes on the road – by using heat to tell drivers when to turn left or right.#Technology #FutureMobility pic.twitter.com/iVbhgUHG6J Jaguar Land Rover (@JLR_News) May 29, 2019 An infrared illustration shows the left-hand side of the steering wheel getting warm as the driver approaches a scheduled turn as determined by the satnav. After rounding the bend, the Jag’s wheel returns to normal temperature. By using heat to tell drivers when to turn left or right, it eliminates the need for them to divert their eyes to a map screen on the centre stack. Interestingly, the video shows both the left and right sides of the wheel heating up when the route is plotted to continue straight ahead at an intersection. Company studies suggest temperature-based instructions could also be used for non-urgent notifications, where vibrations could be deemed unnecessarily attention-grabbing, for example as a warning when fuel is running low, or for upcoming events such as points of interest. Thermal cues can also be used where audio feedback would be deemed too disruptive to cabin conversations or media playback. Naturally, the company tosses around the words ‘autonomous’ and ‘mobility’ in the film, buzzwords wholly appropriate for this day and age if not this particular application. Your author thinks this invention would be great in a normal car, thank you very much. Of course, this leaves us with the question of what happens to a plain old heated steering wheel? Here in the Great White North, most drivers enjoy them more than a kid loves cake. You’ll have to drag mine from my cold (literally)
Origin: Jaguar Land Rover develops wheel that warms to help with navigation

2018 Model X sits on display outside a Tesla showroom.David Zalubowski / AP Photo Tesla Inc. was sued by the family of a man who died as the result of a crash allegedly caused when the Autopilot navigation system of his 2017 Model X malfunctioned. The family of Walter Huang, 38, said in a complaint filed April 26 in California state court that the vehicle, which was sold as a “state-of-the-art” automobile, lacked safety features, such as an automatic emergency braking system. Such features are available on much less expensive vehicles from other carmakers, as well as on more recent Model Xs, Huang’s family said. The family also alleges that Tesla knew, or should have known, “that the Tesla Model X was likely to cause injury to its occupants by leaving travel lanes and striking fixed objects when used in a reasonably foreseeable manner.” The carmaker should have issued a recall or provided a warning “in light of the risk of harm,” the family said in the complaint. Huang died because “Tesla is beta testing its Autopilot software on live drivers,” B. Mark Fong, a lawyer for the family, said in a statement. “The Huang family wants to help prevent this tragedy from happening to other drivers using Tesla vehicles or any semi-autonomous vehicles.” Huang crashed on the morning of March 23, 2018, while driving on U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View, California, when the Tesla Autopilot allegedly turned the vehicle left, straight into the concrete median. He’s survived by his wife, two children, and his parents. The State of California Department of Transportation is also named as a defendant for failing to repair or restore a crash attenuator that had been damaged in a collision a week before Huang’s crash. The case is Huang v. Tesla Inc., 19CV346663, California Superior Court, Santa Clara
Origin: Tesla sued over fatal crash blamed on autopilot navigation error