Anybody in the vicinity of the Sagami Expressway to the southwest of Tokyo one day last November would have witnessed something unusual. They would have seen the first car to operate autonomously on a major public highway in Japan.

An all-electric Nissan LEAF, it is equipped with autonomous drive technology that enables it to steer, brake and accelerate all on its own in line with prevailing road conditions. It can merge into traffic, change lanes and – most importantly – keep a safe distance from other vehicles.

To avoid collisions the autonomous LEAF is fitted with cameras, laser scanners and radar, which identify cars, traffic lights and signs, pedestrians and other objects. The data they glean is processed by an on-board computer, which ensures the controls respond accordingly.

Nissan aims to have a commercially viable autonomous drive system available across its range by 2020 but clearly believes the technology is already safe to use.

Company vice chairman, Toshiyuki Shiga, and Kanagawa Prefecture governor, Yuji Kuroiwa, were both in the LEAF as it travelled along the expressway. Furthermore, earlier that same November the car with a mind of its own played host to Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and took him on a trip around a park in the middle of Tokyo between the Japanese parliament and the imperial palace.

There is one significant problem autonomous drive has to overcome however, and that is its legality.

While the LEAF has been granted a licence plate in Japan in a countrywide first for Nissan, getting it licensed elsewhere in the world could prove problematic. According to the 1968 Vienna Convention, while partly automated driving is permissible, fully automated driving is not; and the convention is used as the basis for legislation in many countries around the world.

‘Authorisation regimes and questions related to product liability are currently the subject of intense debate among associations, governments and insurance companies,’ observed Bosch chairman, Dr Volkmar Denner (right), at an international symposium on automotive and engine technology held in Stuttgart, Germany in March.

That could explain why Toyota in Japan is laying such stress on Automated Highway Driving Assist (AHDA), which it aims to make commercially available in 2015/2016. The driver remains in control of the car but can call on technology to make his or her life just that little bit easier.

The two key features Toyota’s AHDA boasts are Co-operative-adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Trace Control.

The former uses 700MHz band V2V – Vehicle-to-Vehicle – Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) communications to transmit acceleration and deceleration data from preceding cars so that the cars behind can adjust their speeds the better to maintain vehicle-to-vehicle distance. The latter employs a mixture of cameras and radar along with the necessary controlling software to ensure the car maintains an optimal and smooth driving line at all speeds, adjusting the steering angle, driving torque and braking force as and when necessary. 

Keep on trucking

AHDA is a close cousin to something known as platooning and both Volvo Trucks and Scania have been closely tied in with its development in Europe. It involves semi-autonomous cars following a lead truck rather like chickens behind a mother hen and equipped with technology that ensures they all maintain the same speed and keep the same distance between one another and the lead vehicle.

Car drivers can join and leave the platoon whenever they wish to do so. Once they have joined however they slow down and speed up together leaving whoever is sitting behind the wheel of each car free to do other things; send and receive texts for example. Volvo Trucks played a significant part in the European SARTRE – Safe Road Trains for the Environment – programme, which resulted in the first multiple vehicle platoon.

Scania is playing a leading role in the three-year €5.4m European COMPANION research programme, which has just got underway. It is looking at ways in which platooning can be implemented on the public highway.

Taking control

So what are the benefits of all this automation?

Allowing vehicles to travel so close to one another – they may be as little as 6m apart – enables road capacity to be used more efficiently.

From the fleet operator’s viewpoint this closeness means they benefit from reduced air drag and that means lower fuel bills and CO2 emissions. Platooning can cut fuel consumption by up to 20% according to Volvo Trucks.

Denner highlights a further benefit. The more cars are automated, the easier it is for senior citizens to get about; and countries such as Japan, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, Sweden, Austria and Italy all have ageing populations.

He might also have added that in some countries people are retiring later and later. As a consequence more fleets will have to deal with the challenges presented by an ageing workforce that still needs to get from A to B; and a greater degree of automation in the company cars they may still want to use is likely to help.

American fusion…

Over in the USA, Ford is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University in a bid to advance research into automated driving using an automated Ford Fusion Hybrid unveiled last December. The Fusion is fitted with four LIDAR – Light Detection And Ranging – sensors that enable the car to generate a real-time 3D map of its immediate surrounding area and sense objects within it.

In co-operation with Stanford, Ford is attempting to discover ways in which the sensors may be able to see round obstacles ahead. In conjunction with MIT, it is using advanced algorithms to predict the direction in which nearby vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians might be heading.

‘Our goal is to provide cars with common sense,’ says Greg Stevens, global manager for driver assistance and active safety, Ford research and innovation.

‘Drivers are good at using the cues fleet insight around them to predict what will happen next and knowing what you can’t see is often as important as what you can see,’ he continues. ‘By working with Stanford and MIT we aim to bring the same level of intuition to vehicles.’

Aware that pedestrians do not always use their common sense, Toyota has developed a PCS – Pre Collision System – that uses automatic steering in addition to increased pre-collision braking force and automatic braking to reduce the risk that they will be run over. If the car’s sensors detect a pedestrian who is unlikely to be saved by braking alone – if he or she has suddenly stepped straight into the vehicle’s path, say – and there is enough room to steer the vehicle away then the automatic steering will react accordingly.

According to data compiled by the country’s National Police Agency Traffic Bureau, the number of traffic fatalities in Japan has declined for 12 consecutive years, reaching 4,411 in 2012. Out of that total pedestrian deaths are the most common, accounting for 37%.

Sensors that will alert drivers to hazards and if necessary bring the car they are installed in to a stop are becoming increasingly common.

Returning to the USA, the recently unveiled all-new 2015 model-year Chrysler 200 mid-size sedan comes with a host of available safety features.

The roll call includes Adaptive Cruise Control-Plus and Forward Collision Warning-Plus, both of which can halt the vehicle if there is danger ahead, and LaneSense Departure Warning-Plus. It uses subtle steering wheel inputs to warn the driver if the car is drifting out of lane and to assist with corrective action.

If your 200 is involved in a smash then 9-1-1 Call/Assist will connect the occupants to the emergency services thanks to a built-in data link.

On the other side of the Atlantic, eCall is to be made mandatory on all new cars and light commercials sold in the EU from 1 October 2017. It will automatically summon the emergency services in the event of a serious accident.

Fleet Insight

The future is mobility

‘Car ownership is no longer the be-all and end-all; the future is mobility. That means taking advantage of technology to deliver solutions that meet the needs of modern businesses. The “connected car” is fast becoming the norm and it is likely that manufacturers will invest heavily in on-board accessibility and embedded telematics, especially for the new generation of autonomous cars. In the fleet world, this could mean greater productivity for employees working on the move and more proactive fleet management to help “drivers” in distress.

‘The RVs should get better, as it will be clear that the vehicles have been driven optimally. This could ultimately reduce the cost of leasing.’

Richard Schooling

Chief Executive

Alphabet

Advanced technology… now

It would be easy to take a slightly cynical view of the many developments going on around the “autonomous car”. The idea of being able to climb aboard, set a destination then sit back and read the morning paper while a satellite-based navigation system drives you safely to your destination might seem a little far-fetched at the moment. But much the same could be said of most of the advanced technologies that we now take for granted… such as satellite navigation itself. It’s no wonder that road atlases are steadily coming down in price.

A good example of this is the hydrogen fuel-cell hybrid. Manufacturers like Hyundai and Toyota are now making these systems commercially available, but few would have dreamed this possible just 10 years ago. But motor manufacturers have a way of overcoming obstacles and there is no doubt that if the consensus view is that autonomous driving is the way forward, then it will happen.

Ross Durkin

Managing Editor

Fleet World Group

German approach

Sometimes referred to as Car-to-X technology, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) technology is becoming more important too.

In Germany some 18 months ago BMW was involved in a project in Frankfurt along with the city council, the government of the state of Hesse and a variety of universities and research institutes all working under the simTD banner. It stands for Safe Intelligent Mobility Testing Ground Germany and had the objective of allowing cars and motorcycles to communicate with each other and with the local infrastructure; with traffic lights for instance.

‘By getting traffic light systems to transmit information on their phase times a driver assistance system can either indicate the ideal (legal) speed for catching all the lights on green or warn drivers before they drive through on red,’ says a BMW spokesman.

The car can transmit information too.

‘By transferring specific data about traffic levels, the state of the road surfaces and other factors, it is possible for the vehicle to issue advance warnings of accidents, traffic tailbacks or black ice,’ the spokesman adds. Drivers who receive this information can respond accordingly; by slowing down for example.

Much of the data transmitted can be analysed by city authorities when they are drawing up traffic management plans – they can soon see whereabouts collisions and traffic jams most frequently occur – and in the long-term planning of road networks. Two-way communication links between vehicles and the infrastructure can also help drivers obtain information on everything from vacant parking spaces and traffic disruption caused by roadworks to weather conditions.

However, there is a potential problem. The high-frequency WLAN – Wireless Local Area Network – that is often required to transmit V2I information may not be present and is expensive to install.

Billions of euros of investment cash recently announced by Siim Kallas, formerly prime minister of Estonia and now European Union commissioner for mobility and transport, may go some way towards resolving this and other transport infrastructure challenges across the EU. ‘I am convinced that this major financial boost will bring the expected benefits in terms of improved transport connections and that the value added by investing in genuinely European infrastructure will become plainly visible to investors, transport users and citizens,’ he says.

EU cash – €25m euros in this case – is also being funnelled into a new European research project called Adaptive; Automated Driving Applications & Technologies for Intelligent Vehicles. A consortium of 29 partners based at the MobileLifeCampus in Wolfsburg, Germany and led by Volkswagen, it aims to achieve breakthrough advances that will lead to more efficient and safe automated driving.

‘This complex field of research will not only utilise on-board sensors but also cooperative elements such as V2V and V2I communications,’ says Professor Jurgen Leohold, executive director of Volkswagen Group Research.

Says Bosch’s Denner: ‘The traffic of the future is electric, automated and connected. By 2020 at the latest, the technologies required for highly automated driving would have reached maturity.

‘In the decade that follows we expect to see fully-automated driving.’

That is something fleet operators and drivers the world over will have to get used to; and fleets will have to develop policies that accommodate it.