slightly; – All about car

One of the many double-edged new features in vehicles is the modern start/stop system. Designed to save a few teaspoonfuls of fuel by shutting down a cars engine under certain conditions while its at rest, this invention amuses and annoys in equal measure.On one hand, it is saving fuel; on the other, it can kill power steering on some cars, and roar back to life with a rude judder in others.GM thinks it may have a way around some of these annoyances. At present, a start/stop system looks for a number of criteria before shutting down an engine, including road speed and accessory load. According to a new patent filed by The General, the addition of a camera and slick AI programming could make the systems that much more bearable. Using the cars onboard GPS to help determine location and situation, GMs patent will allow a start/stop system to recognize the difference between being in a parking lot or on the 401 during rush hour. Combined with machine learning, it would theoretically be able to deactivate the start/stop during parking lot maneuvers, or when pulling into a driveway.Few things in this life are more irritating than a car shutting off the instant one stops outside their home only for it to fire again when the driver moves their foot off the brake. If the driver is not quick enough to clue into whats going on raises hand theres a good chance theyll stab a finger at the ignition button to turn off the car but, because the system has already turned the car off, such action results in the engine re-firing for no reason. It can be infuriating.Technically, the system could also read traffic data from the cloud in an attempt to prepare itself for start/stop duty when it might not otherwise be needed. If ones commute is generally light on traffic, such knowledge harvested from the cloud would allow the car to recognize upcoming congestion and permit the start/stop system to operate once thrust into that environment. Since the car is monitoring its whereabouts, Luddites will surely carp about privacy.Its an intriguing solution to a wholly self-created problem. Well keep our ears to the ground for more
Origin: General Motors patents a slightly less annoying start-stop system

A woman wades through the flood waters of the St. John River on the only access road to the Dominion Park community in Saint John, N.B., on Wednesday, April 24, 2019.Stephen MacGillivray / THE CANADIAN PRESS After suffering through some of the most severe flooding to hit the area in recent memory, residents of New Brunswick are seeing waters slightly recede. For motorists, this means a partial re-opening of the Trans-Canada Highway in that province, though large swaths of it are still currently closed. Crews are monitoring the situation. During the past few days, when flooding was at its peak, over a hundred kilometres of highway was closed between the communities of Oromocto and River Glade. Today, just nine kilometres are shut, concentrated between markers 330 and 339. Employees of MRDC, the company tasked with maintaining this stretch of highway, are said to be discussing an engineered solution to prevent future flooding problems. MRDC Operations Corporation is a private contractor responsible for the maintenance, operation, and rehabilitation of the 195-km four-lane divided highway between Fredericton and Moncton. It’s the second year in a row the stretch (or part of it) was closed due to flooding. Water levels are gradually decreasing, though the Saint John River remains above flood stage as this time. Levels in Fredericton are projected to sit at just over 7 metres, half a metre above flood stage. In Saint John, levels are lower at 5.1 metres but its flood stage is only 4.2 metres. The provincial government keeps a website which tracks road closures, of which there are many, and a list of other important public advisories. At present, traffic on TCH Route 2 is detoured via Route 1 (Exit 423) and Route 7 (Exit 306 eastbound / Exit 114 westbound). Signage in place but given the length of the detour, motorists would be well advised to pad their travel times to account for the extra
Origin: New Brunswick flooding recedes slightly; Trans-Canada Highway reopening in sections