Systems that assist the driver controlling the car

122 Petersson, Fletcher, Barnes & Zelinsky

To be of assistance, the co-pilot needs to be aware of what is going on outside of the car; for example, are there any pedestrians in sight, where are they going, how is the road turning, and so on. Moreover, we would like our co-pilot to warn us if we have not noticed an upcoming situation. That means that not only should the co-pilot be aware of what is going on outside of the car, but also what is happening inside, in other words, the driver’s responses. In addition, our co-pilot must know where the vehicle is going, how fast it is going, if we are braking, accelerating, and so forth, in order to make good decisions. Good decisions are a result of good reasoning. A successful driver/co-pilot team requires good communication. The co-pilot must not be intrusive or present the driver with too much information. Finally, if the co-pilot notices that the driver does not respond to a situation that will result in an accident, they must be able to take control of the car.

Override-able — The driver has ultimate control and can refuse assistance.•

COMMERCIAL SYSTEMS
The car industry and related companies are quickly moving towards more complex systems to deploy in production vehicles. These range from non-critical systems such as automatic parking to safety critical systems like emergency brakes.

In the area of active safety, Honda has introduced a Collision Mitigation Brake System (CMS), in its Inspire™ model. The system predicts rear-end collisions and assists brake operation to reduce the impact to occupants and the vehicle itself. A millimetre-wave radar is used to estimate distances to vehicles ahead, relative speeds, and expected paths. In the event of a likely collision, there is an audible alarm, tightening of the seatbelt, and a brake assist function that compensates for insufficient pedal pressure to reduce the speed of impact. A system like this is clearly a safety critical system which can cause accidents by itself if triggered by mistake.

There are also commercial systems that monitor the actions of the driver like faceLAB™ from Seeing Machines (http://www.seeingmachines.com). faceLAB™ can track the pose of the head and the direction of the eye gaze, and can measure the amount of time the eyelids are closed. Volvo and other car manufacturers plan to incorporate this into their advanced driver assistance systems.