German car manufacturer Opel is working on technology designed to make urban transport safer and more efficient, FleetNews reports. The technology will be incorporated into future Vauxhall cars and vans.
The development of this technology comes as part of a project called UR:BAN (user oriented assistance systems and network management), which is partly funded by the German government. The project aims to provide innovative support to car and commercial vehicle drivers so that they are better equipped to drive in urban traffic.
The project has brought together more than 30 partners. Among them are representatives of the automotive, electronics and software industries, as well as local authorities and research institutes. Their joint efforts are directed at developing intelligent assistance and cooperative traffic management systems.
The project focuses on three main areas (cognitive assistance, networked traffic system and human factors in traffic) and Opel/Vauxhall is engaged with all three, GM Europe engineering VP Michael F Ableson was quoted as saying by FleetNews.
Cognitive assistance will focus on collision avoidance with steering and braking. Opel is working on an innovative system designed to prevent collisions with both vehicles and pedestrians in busy city traffic.
Networked traffic systems will enable information to be sent wirelessly to the vehicle from the traffic management infrastructure or other vehicles. The information can help with recommendations for driving at junctions and these recommendations can be communicated to the driver via an intuitive human-machine-interaction.
Human factors in traffic is the sub-project dealing with behaviour prediction and intention recognition. Opel/Vauxhall's goal is to create an algorithm that can detect driver intention with the help of standard vehicle sensors, thus making it possible to predict behaviour in difficult driving situations.
20 May 2014
