Recognising the pedestrian’s gesture, the car stops to
let them cross safely. If self-driving cars really are the future, then we must
decide upon a language with which to interact with them - and hand gestures
could be the answer.
In 2002, Mercedes-Benz gave birth to an advanced occupant
protection system called Pre-Safe, which debuted on the 220-series S-Class. It
effectively gave the saloon instincts, and the foresight to anticipate danger.
With a collision imminent, it could tighten seat belts, close the sunroof and
move the front seats into the optimum position for airbag deployment, all
without any instruction from the driver.
In 2002,
Mercedes-Benz gave birth to an advanced occupant protection system called
Pre-Safe, which debuted on the 220-series S-Class.
Wind the clock forward to 2012, and the capabilities of
Pre-Safe had grown, the system now capable of preventing collisions with
pedestrians and vehicles in front in city traffic, and defusing situations
caused by traffic behind thanks to a host of new sensors and trick braking
technology. Upgraded seat belts could even move occupants away from an impact
zone and protect them further still.
A Vision Of The Future
The 222-series S-Class of 2013 moved things on yet again,
incorporating more sensors and even a stereo camera with ‘6D vision’ which,
when teamed with Mercedes’ Distronic Plus with Steering Assist system, enables
the car to recognise road markings and ensure it stays in the correct lane by
gently guiding the wheel in your hands. Although not self-aware, Mercedes’
flagship saloon is most definitely tuned into everything going on around it.
The 222-series
S-Class of 2013 moved things on yet again, incorporating more sensors and even
a stereo camera with ‘6D vision’ which, when teamed with Mercedes’ Distronic
Plus with Steering Assist system, enables the car to recognise road markings
and ensure it stays in the correct lane by gently guiding the wheel in your
hands.
So, where do we go from here? If you believe Mercedes and many
others, traffic aware, self-driving cars are inevitable in the pursuit of accident
free travel, even if there are still considerable legislative hurdles to
overcome. That said, the production version of the latest S-Class is already
capable of relegating its driver to a bit part in proceedings, and it could
make this more permanent with a few additional upgrades, as seen last year. In
August 2013, an S500 Intelligent Drive research car retraced the over 60-mile
route taken by Bertha Benz in 1888 without any input from the engineer sat in
the driver’s seat, and negotiated dense complex traffic situations faultlessly.
The next stage of autonomous cars was discussed by Mercedes-Benz, robotics
experts and linguists at the second Mercedes-Benz Future Talk, held in June
2014. The hot topic was how humans would communicate with the cars of tomorrow.
“The traffic of the future will become increasingly interactive - and I don’t
just mean the networking of vehicles,” stated Dr Herbert Kohler, Head of Group
Research and Sustainability and Chief Environmental Officer at Daimler AG.
“We view it as our elementary task to put autonomous cars on
the road, not just as technological achievements, but also to make them an
integral part of the traffic of the future/’ he continued.
Commands And Control
Dr Ellen Fricke, a gesture researcher from the Chemnitz
Technical University and co-founder of the Berlin Gesture Center, put forward
the following arguments. “If we consider gestures to be an option for successfully
communicating with autonomous cars, it is of course important to look at which
human gestures in everyday use are especially suitable as a starting point for
this.” But as Fricke pointed out, “Not only is an encyclopedia of robot
gestures required, but as the very first step, a comprehensive digital database
of human gestures.”
Communication with autonomous vehicles is very much in its
infancy, which is why Mercedes created an ‘experimentation field’ with the help
of Ars Electrónica Futurelab, with the aim of testing interaction between
humans and robots. In the setting, three interactive quad copters were hailed,
stopped or steered using gestures or by touching a haptic control object,
giving a sense of what it would be like to co-exist with autonomous machines.
Communication with
autonomous vehicles is very much in its infancy, which is why Mercedes created
an ‘experimentation field’ with the help of Ars Electrónica Futurelab, with the
aim of testing interaction between humans and robots.
There is still a long way to go before our cars recognize
gesture instructions, but you can bet Mercedes-Benz will be one of the first,
if not the first car manufacturer to make it a reality.
