Remember that old Saturday Night Live bit where the best way to improve almost anything is “more cowbell?” Based on a series of presentations and demonstrations by automotive supplier Bosch Group at their Flat Rock, Mich. proving grounds Thursday, the cowbell to improve safety and performance in automated and semi-automated vehicles is a combination of more sensors and enabling technology.
Indeed, production of radar sensors and other driver assist technology is booming, according to Scott Winchip, Bosch North America Regional President of Chassis Control Systems.
“Sales of radar sensors will grow 20% this year globally and video sensors by 30% globally,” said Winchip. “Bosch produced 20 million radar sensors since 2000. In 2018 sales of drivers assistance passed 2 billion euros globally for the first time. That’s up from 1 billion euros in 2016. In 2019 we’re forecasting 15% growth globally in this area.”
For the first time, Bosch demonstrated its Vehicle Motion and Positioning System (VMPS), which, it says using a host of sensors to one-up the performance of systems using only GPS. It’s a combination of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) position signals, correction data (to overcome any inaccuracies in satellite data signals as they make their way to the ground) and information from the inertial sensors, the wheel-speed sensors, and the steering-angle sensor. It all feeds into a high-performance receiver.
“GPS is kind of precise but not enough for us so we’re using a correction service that really brings the precision down to like a few decimeters.” said Christian Sperrle, Engineering Manager Radar Software Management at Bosch.
It’s an innovation, said Scott Winchip, that will help advance the performance and safety in vehicles equipped with any level of automation.
“For automated technologies, it is paramount that vehicles are able to localize themselves down to the centimeter at any time,” said Winchip.
Bosch expects VMPS to be available in North America and Europe next year.
Another technology aimed at improving performance in vehicles equipped with automated driver assist systems (ADAS) and eventually fully automated cars and trucks is Bosch’s Integrated Power Brake, also making its North American debut at Thursday’s media event.
The company says this system accomplishes two goals: faster braking and improved fuel economy. Unlike today’s hydraulic systems, the Integrated Power Brake operates without a traditional vacuum booster, combining the booster system with the electronic stability program into one unit. When the driver hits the brake pedal a sensor, yes, another sensor, detects how far his or her foot has pressed and and pressure to the brakes is applied by electronic motor. It saves fuel by allowing regenerative braking–recharging the battery as the vehicle slows down.
A version of the Integrated Power Brake is available on the Cadillac XT4 but an improved version is coming.
Other sensor-based systems shown included one that will give drivers, and eventually, automated systems, a more accurate picture of driving conditions via a virtual map built from information derived from other vehicles.
“Preceding vehicles are driving and basically recording road conditions to the cloud and providing this over the cloud to other vehicles,” explained Sperrle. “At some point your system will know ahead of time what’s coming, will give you a warning and the system will either slow down or ask you to take over.”
There’s also one that would give a nudge to an inattentive driver in a semi-automated vehicle. It uses a small camera mounted on the A-pillar aimed at the driver’s head.
““If the driver is inattentive we will inform the driver about this. We will let him know he should take his eyes back on the road,” said Sperrle.
As long as Bosch had a group of reporters on hand, the company tossed in a first-look at the Dexter Tow Assist ABS & Sway Mitigation System. That’s a long name for a system that, for the first time, equips trailers with anti-lock brakes, engaging the system without driver input. Bosch says it will improve stability during emergency driving condition and control unit sway when the trailer is in motion during windy conditions, or or during improper loading. The system was developed in partnership with Dexter Axle Company.
Indeed, all these innovations are sensor-dependent in one way or another with the goal of improving safety and performance from semi-automated vehicles to one day, those that are fully self-driving. It’s all about more sensors. More cowbell.