Volvo Car Group has developed an
ingenious concept for autonomous parking. The concept car, which will be
demonstrated at a media event next week, finds and parks in a vacant
space by itself, without the driver inside. The smart, driverless car
also interacts safely and smoothly with other cars and pedestrians in
the car park.
"Autonomous Parking is
a concept technology that relieves the driver of the time-consuming
task of finding a vacant parking space. The driver just drops the
vehicle off at the entrance to the car park and picks it up in the same
place later," says Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Advisor Volvo Car
Group.
Vehicle 2 Infrastructure
technology, in other words transmitters in the road infrastructure,
informs the driver when the service is available. The driver uses a
mobile phone application to activate the Autonomous Parking and then
walks away from the car.
The vehicle
uses sensors to localize and navigate to a free parking space. The
procedure is reversed when the driver comes back to pick up the car.
Interacts with other vehicles and road users
Combining
autonomous driving with detection and auto brake for other objects
makes it possible for the car to interact safely with other cars and
pedestrians in the car park. Speed and braking are adapted for smooth
integration in the parking environment.
"Our
approach is based on the principle that autonomously driven cars must
be able to move safely in environments with non-autonomous vehicles and
unprotected road users," says Thomas Broberg.
Pioneering autonomous technologies
Volvo
Car Group's aim is to gain leadership in the field of autonomous
driving by moving beyond concepts and actually delivering pioneering
technologies that will reach the customers. The Autonomous Parking
concept is one of several development projects in this field.
Volvo
Cars has also been the only participating car manufacturer in the
SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project, which was
successfully completed in 2012. The project involved seven European
partners. It is the only one of its kind to focus on technology that can
be implemented on conventional highways on which platooned traffic
operates in a mixed environment with other road users.
The
SARTRE platoon included a lead truck followed by four Volvos driven
autonomously at speeds of up to 90 km/h - in some cases with no more
than a four-meter gap between the vehicles.
Autonomous steering in the next XC90
"The
autonomous parking and platooning technologies are still being
developed. However, we will take the first steps towards our leadership
aim by introducing the first features with autonomous steering in the
all-new Volvo XC90, which will be revealed at the end of 2014,"
concludes Thomas Broberg.
Article and image courtesy of Volvo News.
Most headlight bulbs now
are filled with halogen and have special coatings on the outside of the glass. If
you pick the bulb up by the glass with your fingers, you will leave trace
amounts of oil and grease on the glass. When the bulb is used, that area of the
glass will get hotter than the rest and it will eventually cause the bulb to
crack. When changing headlight bulbs, only hold the metal bulb holder at the
base, or make sure you're wearing rubber surgical / mechanic's gloves (clean
ones) if you're touching the glass. 
