The Space Race for Driverless Vehicles
The world’s first automaker, Ford, has partnered with St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in Russia to understand how robots “talk” in space. They hope the multi-network telecommunications system, called “mesh networks,” can serve as a model for fool-proof communications between earthly machines—this includes car-to-car and car-to-traffic-signal. It could be a lynchpin in the advancement of driverless technology.
Read Full Article
Source: Wired.com
Good for Social Security, but….
The growing population of non-retired seniors is becoming a major source of road risk. Many older workers – who are considered “vulnerable drivers” due to their increased likelihood of compromised hearing, sight and cognitive function – operate vehicles as part of their jobs. On-the-job car accidents are the leading cause of occupational death and senior drivers are responsible for three times as many as their non-senior counterparts, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Read Full Article
Source: USA Today
Power to the Driver
A new industry-academic partnership is working to solve two persistent driving issues: Fuel economy and cognitive distraction. The Powertrain Project pairs Engineers at
Hundi-Kia’s America Technical Center with grad students at the neighboring
University of Michigan’s College of Engineering and School of Kinesiology. Current reserch-and-development: Dual Pre-Chamber (DPC) lean-burn combustion system that helps car engines optimize the flow of gasoline, ultimately requiring less of it; Electroencephalograph (EEG) sensors, a system that measures a driver’s brainwaves and alerts them when they’re slipping into “highway hypnosis,” a fancy term for daydreaming-while-driving.
Read Full Article
Source: AfterMarketNews.com
A Holiday Warning to Drivers
Every three hours a sober person is killed by drunk driving. That’s the statistic inspiring “Drive Sober or get Pulled Over,” a national effort that calls on more than 10,000 police departments to get drunk drivers off the road. The campaign—which runs through Labor Day – gives special focus to the third of victims who are not the driver (in total, drunk driving kills 10,000 annually) and is a partnership between the U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Read Full Press Release
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
