Assisted driving shines brightly: Analyzing the technologies at the 2014 CES

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held at the beginning of each year is a grand event for electronic products and cutting-edge technologies. In recent years, various automotive technologies at CES have attracted more and more attention. If last year's exhibition was the focus of in-vehicle intelligent multimedia, this year's in-vehicle intelligent multimedia technology was overshadowed by the brilliance of assisted driving technology.

CES is hosted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) of the United States, aiming to promote the close integration of cutting-edge electronic technology and modern life. The exhibition started in 1967 and has a history of 46 years. It has become a window for major global electronic product companies to release product information, display high-tech levels and advocate future lifestyles. We divide the automotive-related technologies at this exhibition into three categories for you to display: first, assisted driving systems, second, in-vehicle multimedia systems, and finally, new energy and environmental protection technologies. If you are interested in a certain technology, you can click on the technology name in the table below to directly enter the relevant page to read.

Driver assistance systems

CES is a gathering of all kinds of fantastic ideas, new technologies and inventions. Here you can see refrigerators that display the freshness of food in each storage compartment, bracelets that record life trajectories and physical conditions, and of course, electronic technologies and technologies that make our future driving safer and smarter are also indispensable. This article will start with these technologies that seem a bit weird now. Don't laugh at them. Technologies that seem immature now may come to you and change your life in the future.

■ Audi laser headlights

Lighting group shape has always been an important means for designers to create the "characteristics" of vehicle appearance. When it comes to lighting group shape, I believe that many people's first reaction will be to think of the Audi brand. In the era of LED light sources, designers have integrated this technology with beautiful design, allowing the lighting group to give different models of the Audi brand different temperaments. In a sense, this has almost brought a revolution to car lights. I know that you may still be immersed in the gorgeous atmosphere created by the light strip shape. Wake up first, this CES, Audi has brought us laser headlights again.

Actually, it is not quite accurate to call it a new technology, because Audi had already publicly disclosed its laser fog lamp technology as early as 2011. If the application of laser light source in the fog lamp position is just an attempt to explore its possibility, then Audi's application of it in the vehicle headlight group position shows that they are full of confidence in this technology.

After looking at the structure, let's look at the advantages of laser headlights. Compared with LED headlights, laser headlights not only have most of the advantages of LED headlights, such as fast response speed, low brightness attenuation, small size, low energy consumption, and long life. Compared with LED headlights, laser headlights are especially advantageous in terms of volume. The length of a single laser diode element can be as small as 10 microns, which is only 1/100 of the size of a conventional LED element. Such a change will leave more room for appearance designers to display their talents.

Another significant advantage of laser headlights is their luminous efficiency. The luminous efficiency of general LED lighting can reach about 100 lumens per watt, while laser diode elements can reach about 170 lumens per watt. This means that when the same lighting conditions are met, the energy consumption of using laser headlights is less than 60% of that of LED headlights, further reducing energy consumption and being more in line with the energy-saving and environmental protection trend of future cars.

Comments:

Although using laser as the light source of lamps has many advantages, it will take some time for this technology to truly come to us. First, Audi needs to consider whether laser headlights will lead to a significant increase in costs. Secondly, this technology must undergo various safety assessments by the European Union.

By the way, Audi's competitors are not idle either. BMW's actions in this field are not just a teasing announcement at CES, but the laser headlights have been installed on the mass-produced i8. However, it is still unknown whether it has passed the safety assessment of relevant departments in the United States and the European Union.

■ Kia driver medical examination system

When talking about safe driving, we always mention that one of the important points is to concentrate. It is not recommended to drive a vehicle when you are not in good health. When driving, problems with our health are likely to cause major accidents. For this reason, Kia has developed a health check function for drivers while driving, which is similar to the principle of some fatigue detection systems.

The in-car health checkup function exhibited by Kia at this CES is realized by the driver placing his thumbs on the sensors on both sides of the steering wheel. After selecting this function on the central control screen, the user can place his thumbs on the sensors to detect some data. Such detection equipment is similar to the health detection equipment in the gym, which can check the user's current fat mass, heart rate, etc.

Comments:

Through this set of equipment, users can understand their current physical condition more simply and quickly. In the future, combined with the smart bracelet devices and App software that were very popular at this year's CES, it will become very easy for drivers to understand their real-time physical condition and decide whether to drive or go to a medical institution.

■ Atmel releases car center console with curved touch screen

Despite the rapid development of technology, the center console of the vehicle has rarely made any breakthroughs in its design because it needs to carry many functions and buttons. Is the slightly rigid LCD screen on the Tesla Model S the center console of the future? Of course not, industrial design can also become more aesthetic. The "Atmel AvantCar" concept of the car center console displayed by Atmel at CES has promoted its development. The goal of this product is to help designers create a more streamlined center console through touch screens, touch button technology, and semiconductor products.

Atmel AvantCar uses a curved metal mesh touch screen sensor "XSense". This 12-inch touch screen is not only huge in size, but also has low power consumption. Secondly, it is equipped with capacitive touch buttons and sliders "QTouch", which can replace traditional buttons and knobs to optimize layout space.

Comments:

By applying XSense and QTouch technology, without the constraints of hardware, designers can give the center console a smoother curved shape, and the front storage space and seating space will also be expanded.

■ Valeo vision control technology

In order to reduce the dangers that may be caused by the driver operating the audio and air conditioning systems while driving the vehicle, Valeo has developed this driver assistance system. This technology operates the vehicle's audio and other systems by scanning the human eye movement, that is, it enables the connection between the car and the driver's eyes.

With the help of the eye-detection camera, the driver can change the radio channel and obtain relevant information by simply looking at the button they want to operate. When this technology is integrated with the head-up digital display system (HUD), the driver can see the corresponding information they want to operate on the instrument control panel on the windshield without having to look away when performing relevant vehicle operations.

Comments:

Being able to control related functions just by looking is a scene that may only be seen in science fiction movies. However, it is still unclear whether this technology is easy to use, such as how long the eyes need to stare at the button and how high the system's recognition rate is. This is also directly related to the final user experience.

■ Intel launches smart headlight technology

In 1887, cars began to be equipped with lighting equipment. At that time, people only installed household lanterns on cars. In the following 100 years, the development of automotive lighting equipment has never stopped. From halogen lamps to xenon lamps, LED lamps and even the still conceptual laser headlights, the changes in light sources are constantly breaking the development bottleneck of automotive lighting equipment. Although new lighting technology can provide drivers with better vision at night, the effects of these lighting equipment are still limited in some special environments, such as rainy and snowy nights. In response to this, Intel and Carnegie Mellon University (hereinafter referred to as CMU) exhibited their solutions at CES 2014.

When driving in rainy and snowy conditions at night, the headlights will be reflected by raindrops or snowflakes, thus affecting the driver's vision. Intel and CMU conducted research in this direction and developed a technology called "Smart Headlight", which can reduce the degree of reflection of lights in layers of raindrops/snowflakes, thereby improving the driver's vision in bad weather conditions. When the chief analyst of a US technology company saw this technology, he exclaimed: "This is very spectacular, and this is a very practical technology."

This is achieved by taking advantage of the gaps between raindrops or snowflakes when they fall. The system tracks the falling raindrops/snowflakes through a camera and calculates their movement trajectory through a processor. At the same time, the system adjusts the position relationship with the raindrops/snowflakes through a projection device to reduce the reflection of the light, so that a relatively clear view is presented to the driver. This time, Intel did not disclose too many technical details.

Judging from the current development trend of car lights, the projection function may be realized by relying on LED light sources in the future. Each LED component is controlled by a system. The agency believes that based on LED technology, LED and image sensors can be integrated on one chip to minimize the size and reduce costs.

Scanning speed requirements

The response time of the prototype on display is 1 millisecond (the prototype in 2012 took 13 milliseconds for the whole process), and the scanning frequency of the projection equipment has been increased from the original 120Hz to 1000Hz. In an environment with light rainfall, when the vehicle is driving at a low speed, the system can eliminate 70% to 80% of the impact of raindrops or snowflakes on the field of view. Even in heavy rain, the performance will only be attenuated by about 5%. However, if the vehicle is driving at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, the vehicle will move about 28 meters per second. Obviously, this puts higher requirements on the scanning and calculation speed of the system. Although we do not recommend people to drive too fast in rainy days, this is indeed the main research direction of the two research institutions in the future.

Comments:

The involvement of IT companies such as Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm, which will be discussed later, has made automobile manufacturing interesting. The extremely high frequency of IT product updates will surely set off a new storm in the field of automobile design and manufacturing. Of course, it should also be noted that for users, the cost of automobile upgrades is much higher than that of IT products. How to balance all this is the problem facing them.

■ Nvidia launches GPU for driver assistance system

When it comes to NVIDIA, many gamers know that it is a world-leading graphics processing technology company, but it is difficult to associate it with cars. In fact, NVIDIA has been involved in the automotive industry for a long time, providing display chips for in-car infotainment systems and image processing chips for active driver assistance safety systems for brands such as BMW and Audi. At the ongoing 2014 CES (International Consumer Electronics Show), NVIDIA launched a new graphics processor (GPU) Tegra K1 and applied it to the field of automotive safety.

Compared with previous processing chips, Tegra K1 has stronger performance. In the radar + camera-based advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) sensing system, it can realize functions including pedestrian detection, traffic sign recognition, lane recognition, etc., and is used in collision prevention (PCS), lane departure warning (LDW) and active cruise control (ACC) systems.

"To process the massive amounts of data coming from driver assistance system sensors and cameras, NVIDIA is bringing extremely energy-efficient supercomputer technology to vehicles," said Nvidia vice president and general manager of its automotive business unit. "Tegra K1 delivers up to 10 times the computing power of previous mobile processors without consuming any additional energy."

Comments:

There are currently more than 4 million vehicles in the world equipped with NVIDIA GPUs, and the latest Tegra K1 significantly improves processing speed while maintaining the original energy consumption, making driver assistance systems faster and smarter.

Car multimedia system

With the development of technology, the originally monotonous driving journey is becoming more and more rich. Not everyone is obsessed with vehicle performance. No need to remember the route, turn on the navigation, listen to music, drive safely with the help of the computer, and no need to stretch your neck to find a parking space when you arrive at the destination. I believe everyone will be happy to accept these interesting experiences. How to improve and make the customer experience better is the focus of research and development of many car companies. At the CES exhibition, you can see the results of many companies' efforts in this regard.

■ Qualcomm launches information processor for vehicles

In my childhood when pagers were still considered luxury goods, I never thought that one day I would use a palm-sized device to watch movies, play games, or even learn about what happened on the other side of the earth at this second. Today, more than 20 years later, more and more car models are equipped with a touch screen that can control the multimedia system. However, due to cost and safety considerations, the current screens that display the in-vehicle interactive system are far behind the smartphones in terms of resolution, response speed, and software usability.

This time, Qualcomm showcased its Snapdragon processors that will be installed in vehicles. Qualcomm's highly integrated "all-in-one" mobile processor series platform currently covers entry-level smartphones, high-end smartphones, tablets and next-generation smart terminals. It has powerful multimedia functions, 3D graphics functions, GPS engines and can adapt to 3G/4G mobile broadband technology.

The Snapdragon 602a processor, which belongs to the Snapdragon 600 series, will be installed in vehicles in the future. It has four Krait cores, integrated Adreno 320 graphics processor and Hexagon DSP, and also integrated Gobi 9×15 multi-mode baseband, supports 3G/4G LTE network, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 standards. It supports multiple operating systems, of course, the most mainstream ones are still Android and QNX systems. It can bring better 3D picture navigation, facial recognition, gesture recognition and even 3D games on the rear seat display screen for car users.

Comments:

Qualcomm's experience in R&D, design, and manufacturing in the IT industry will greatly shorten the time from R&D to application of this automotive processor technology. Its involvement this time is of extraordinary significance. It is not an exaggeration to compare it to Apple's involvement in the mobile phone field. In the future, in-vehicle systems will become smaller, smarter, and faster to replace.

■ Volvo and Ericsson work together to develop vehicle “cloud services”

Volvo, which has always focused on safety technology, did not show off its safety technology too much at this exhibition, but instead announced the latest information about its cooperation with Ericsson to develop "cloud technology" since 2011. In the future, Volvo models will be able to push navigation, entertainment and other information to car owners through the in-car screen, and it will also be possible to download application software.

According to the agreement, Ericsson will be responsible for the integration of multiple Volvo Car systems and will also provide global cloud solution management services to ensure smooth cooperation between vehicles and all participants in the industry chain.

Comments:

In this era dominated by in-vehicle interconnection systems, Volvo has finally caught up with the trend. Currently, it is only launching the concept of cloud services, and the specific results remain to be seen.

■ Google and Audi and other car companies form an alliance to promote the Android system

On January 6, 2014, Google, General Motors, Honda, Audi, Hyundai and NVIDIA jointly announced the establishment of the Open Automotive Alliance, which aims to apply Google's open source system Android to the automotive field.

The alliance said it will integrate the already successful Android mobile operating system into the in-car entertainment system in a targeted manner. It is expected that the first cars with integrated Android systems will be available before the end of this year, and the number of alliance members will increase further in the future, mainly car manufacturers and technology companies. Currently, the alliance is mainly committed to developing new features for Android to allow application developers to easily add car mode to their applications.

The alliance has already been in contact with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to ensure that Android is suitable for use in in-car systems. The alliance said: "The main goal is to integrate the best Android system into the car safely and seamlessly."

Comments:

The "ambitious" Google has joined forces with car companies such as Audi, and their combat effectiveness is unquestionable. The cooperation with NHTSA makes people more confident about the safety of using the system.

■ Ford SYNC AppLink in-vehicle entertainment and communication system

The command menu and operation buttons of the new generation SYNC AppLink in-car entertainment and communication system have been simplified. According to the information released by Ford at the exhibition, it has cooperated with five companies including anti-theft security company ADT, voice recognition company Gracenote and Domino's Pizza. The new SYNC system will include new functions such as voice control integration technology, in-car push, software download, etc.

In the future, if you forget to lock the door when you leave home in a hurry in the morning, you can use a smartphone connected to the SYNC system to remotely lock the door through ADT's anti-theft security software ADP Pulse with Ford SYNC AppLink. You can also use your smartphone to monitor your home in real time, and even open and close the garage door, turn on and off corridor lights and air conditioning.

Nowadays, when a vehicle arrives at a destination, it is very likely that there will be no parking space. In the future, drivers can use the Parkmobile App in the SYNC system to find the nearest parking space under voice guidance. When paying for parking, they can also pay through e-commerce through the voice control system, further reducing waiting time.

"The LCD screen shows the new generation SYNC AppLink in-car entertainment and communication system interface"

In addition, the new generation SYNC AppLink in-vehicle entertainment and communication system allows application developers to call up real-time vehicle information including driving speed, acceleration, odometer information and vehicle location, and integrate with the application to bring car owners a more comprehensive and personalized interactive connection experience.

Comments:

SYNC AppLink is good, but if it is introduced to our country in the future, localization will be a problem.

■ Mercedes-Benz launches smart watch

Mercedes-Benz demonstrated its technological achievements to the outside world at the exhibition. By cooperating with Silicon Valley startup Pebble, Mercedes-Benz launched a set of wearable devices based on the Pebble smart watch.

Although the cooperation with Pebble is not long, Mercedes-Benz established its first automotive technology research and development center in Silicon Valley as early as 1994. In December 2013, they opened a second technology research and development center. In addition, Mercedes-Benz is also actively cooperating closely with technology companies such as Apple and Google. It can be said that Mercedes-Benz has already had considerable reserves in automotive electronic technology.

This Pebble smartwatch can be connected to the vehicle, and the owner can obtain basic vehicle information through the watch, such as door lock status, vehicle location, fuel status, etc. When driving, the Pebble smartwatch will also vibrate to remind the driver of the road conditions ahead (real-time road conditions such as traffic accidents and road repairs). It is worth mentioning that the watch provides 3 custom buttons, which can be set according to the driver's needs for traffic report, navigation, multimedia control and starting Siri. Yes, you read it right, it is Apple's Siri.

In fact, all the functions realized by Pebble smartwatches in Mercedes-Benz cars rely on Apple iPhone, that is, the watch is connected to iPhone, iPhone is connected to the car interconnection system through Bluetooth, iPhone collects vehicle information with the help of Mercedes-Benz "Digital DriveStyle" App, and then sends the information to Pebble smartwatches. iPhone is more like an information transfer station. At present, the Pebble smartwatch used in Mercedes-Benz cars can only realize the information transmission function through Apple iPhone, and the systems of other smart phones are not compatible.

Comments:

Wearable devices are a product type that has attracted much attention at this CES. In addition to electronics companies such as Sony and Samsung, more and more manufacturers have begun to try to integrate watches into the vehicle's information interaction system. Previously, BMW also announced the results of its cooperation with Samsung. Obviously, being able to integrate in-vehicle interconnection technology into watches to the greatest extent will undoubtedly be a good experience for car users.

■ BMW smart watch

As smartphones become increasingly popular, mobile Internet services are becoming an indispensable part of life. In order to keep up with the trend, BMW has launched a smart watch in conjunction with its newly launched i3 pure electric car.

The smartwatch looks similar to an ordinary watch, and it can connect to the user's smartphone and display information directly on the watch screen. In addition, the watch can also remotely access vehicle information, such as the battery charging status, mileage, and other vehicle-related information of the i3 electric car, and the user can also remotely set the vehicle's navigation information and adjust the air conditioning temperature through the watch.

Comments:

Last year, BYD launched a watch with integrated car key function, and this year the technology made BMW the world's first automobile company to integrate vehicle information and control functions into a smart watch.

■ BMW Dynamic Autonomous Driving Technology

Nowadays, many manufacturers are conducting relevant research and development and testing of autonomous driving technology, but such testing is still more based on ordinary roads and normal driving. This time, BMW demonstrated autonomous driving technology that can be performed under extreme driving conditions.

The automatic driving technology can ensure the driving safety of the vehicle under extreme driving conditions. The technology is mainly realized in two ways: one is to apply different braking forces to each wheel through the ABS system, and the other is to use radar, ultrasound and optical cameras to monitor road conditions in real time, and actively intervene in the steering of the car after processing the feedback information. The system will ensure the perfect coordination between the steering wheel, brake system and accelerator pedal. When the vehicle has a tendency to understeer or oversteer, the system will actively intervene after precise calculation to ensure driving safety.

Comments:

BMW is indeed a car brand that emphasizes sports. In terms of autonomous driving, it has entered the stage of extreme driving conditions on the track, but this still seems very far away from us.

New energy and environmental protection technology

At CES, an exhibition full of fantastic ideas, electric cars don't seem so avant-garde. Fuel cell technology and solar energy technology are the mainstream here. They are exhibited by two companies from the east and west coasts of the Pacific Ocean. Let's take a look at the products of the different thinking logic of Easterners and Westerners.

■ Toyota fuel cell vehicle technology

Although Elon Musk, the head of TESLA, has publicly stated that fuel cells are bullshit, Japanese manufacturers on the other side of the world are still developing fuel cell technology in full swing. Toyota exhibited the fuel cell (FCV) concept car TOYOTA FCV at this year's Tokyo Motor Show, which is planned to be launched in 2015. In addition to bringing the FCV concept car model to the CES, Toyota also announced its plan to set up hydrogen refueling stations in the United States. (Note: Some of the following pictures are from the Toyota booth at the Tokyo Motor Show)

Tips: What is a Fuel Cell?

Fuel Cell literally means that fuel and oxidant are chemically reacted to directly convert into electrical energy, but it cannot store electricity, it can only generate electricity. The difference between fuel cells and conventional batteries is that fuel cells need to continuously input fuel and oxidant into the battery when working. As long as the supply is continuous, the fuel cell will continue to provide electricity.

Advantages of fuel cells

Fuel cells have two obvious advantages. First, they have high energy conversion efficiency. Fuel cells directly convert the chemical energy of fuel into electrical energy without going through the combustion process. Another advantage is that harmful gas emissions and noise are relatively low.

The output power density of the fuel cell stack used in this concept car is 3kW/L, which is more than twice that of the current fuel cell stack equipped in the SUV FCV "Toyota FCHV-adv". According to Toyota, the electrode formation technology used this time uses a technology that can coat platinum catalysts with a particle size of several μm without condensation, which has made a great contribution to improving the output power density of the battery pack.

This concept car is equipped with a high-efficiency boost converter (DC-DC converter), which uses the boost converter to increase the voltage of the fuel cell to increase the speed of the motor and increase the output power. By adopting this method, the size of the drive motor is reduced and the number of fuel cell units is reduced, thus achieving a small fuel cell stack. In addition, despite the small size, the output power of the fuel cell stack still reaches more than 100kW.

Refilling with hydrogen fuel takes only about three minutes, which is about the same as refueling a gasoline car. The cruising range after a full tank of hydrogen fuel is about 500km, and can reach 700km in JC08 mode.

Toyota will use California as an example to predict the construction of hydrogen refueling station infrastructure. Because California has currently formulated regulations that automakers must sell a certain number of ZEVs (Zero Emission Vehicles), it is very concerned about FCVs that do not emit carbon dioxide while driving. In addition, the state has approved an investment of $200 million to improve hydrogen infrastructure. According to Toyota's survey, if 10,000 FCVs are used in major areas of California, 68 hydrogen refueling stations will be required. It is reported that Toyota is discussing with California based on the survey to build 20 new hydrogen refueling stations by 2015 and 40 more by 2016.

Comments:

Toyota has announced that it will launch a fuel cell vehicle in 2015, but it has not announced more information about the distance of the vehicle equipped with the fuel cell system. Is Elon Musk's judgment of the future accurate, or is the Japanese manufacturer's grasp of the pulse of the times more accurate? It is estimated that we will have to wait another 10 years to know the answer.

■ Ford C-MAX Solar Energi solar concept car

After looking at the Toyota fuel cell models above, do you think it is very advanced? Ford displayed a solar-powered concept car at this CES, hoping to solve the pollution caused by current power generation through solar energy.

After fully charged, the Ford C-MAX Solar Concept is expected to perform on par with the C-MAX plug-in hybrid, with a range of 998 kilometers and a pure electric range of 34 kilometers. In addition, the model still has a charging port, so owners can plug the car into a charging station for charging.

Comments:

The idea of ​​using concentrating mirrors to improve the efficiency of solar energy absorption is truly amazing.

Summary of the full text:

CES feels more like a feast for science geeks. Thanks to their efforts, bad weather will no longer pose a threat to people's driving under the intelligent headlight technology; laser headlights that shine farther and are not dazzling will lead the next era of light group modeling and design; interior designers will no longer be limited by technology and unable to design smooth center consoles; people can control the vehicle multimedia system with their eyes; smartphones will be replaced by smart bracelets; hydrogen fuel cells and solar energy, which are more environmentally friendly energy, will be the source of vehicle power in the future, etc. There are already many Chinese home appliance brands at CES, and we expect that more Chinese car companies will take to the big stage of CES next year.