At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, BMW demonstrated its vehicles’ ability to drive tight courses without driver input, should that capability ever be necessary. The next Consumer Electronics Show is only weeks away—January 6 to 9, 2015—and BMW is already previewing how it has built new capabilities on the ones shown last year.
Using new and innovative sensors, BMW will show that collision-free driving may be a real possibility, whether the driver is in control of the vehicle or it is in a fully automated mode. The capability depends on secure position and environment recognition. The demonstration mule for this capability is the BMW i3 electric vehicle (EV) and the function used for this exercise is parking, such as in a multi-level parking garage.
To get the location accuracy needed, four advanced laser scanners record the environment and reliably identify impediments such as columns. If the vehicle approaches a wall or a column too quickly, the system brakes automatically, bringing the vehicle to a stop with at least inches to spare. If the driver moves the steering wheel to avoid the obstacle, the system releases the brakes. As with previous BMW assistance systems, this application can be overridden by the driver.
The fully automated Remote Valet Parking Assistant in the BMW i3 research vehicle requires location information from the laser scanners and also a digital site plan of a building, in this case the multi-level parking garage. Using a Smartwatch that was introduced at the 2014 CES, the driver can activate the remote parking assistant. At this point the driver can exit the car completely. The system will then steer the vehicle independently through the garage levels, recognizing the structural features of the garage and avoiding unexpected obstacles such as incorrectly parked cars. When the BMW i3 arrives at a parking spot, it parks the car, locks itself, and then waits to be reactivated by the driver using a Smartwatch. The Remote Valet Parking Assistant calculates the exact time when the driver will get to the garage and starts the i3 and leaves the parking spot to arrive at the pickup point at just the right time.
The combination of vehicle sensors and a digital site plan eliminates the need for a GPS signal, which is often unavailable or unreliable inside a building. We suppose this also means that if a digital site plan is not available for the facility, then the drivers are on their own.
BMW has been working on vehicle automation for quite a while. You might say it has a long track record, since one of its demonstrations occurred in 2009 on a really long track—the Nürburgring Nordschleife. At that time, the BMW Track Trainer showed a highly automated demonstration of cars lapping after being programed to run ideal lines. Not content with that, BMW also ran their Track Trainer at Laguna Seca, Zandvoort, Valencia, the Hockenheimring, and the Lausitzring, gathering important practical experience under extreme conditions for vehicle control and positioning.
Full automation was also involved with BMW’s research project called BMW Emergency Stop Assistant. In the event the driver is incapacitated—a medical emergency for instance—the vehicle switches to a highly automated mode and steers safely to the side of the road while initiating an emergency call.
In 2011, a BMW test vehicle successfully drove the Autobahn from Munich to Nürnberg without any driver intervention. The test vehicle braked, accelerated, and passed other vehicles on its own, in traffic, at speeds from zero to 80 miles per hour and in compliance with traffic laws. That vehicle had lidar, radar, ultrasound, and camera recording on all sides.
Driver assistance features have been available on BMWs for years. The early version of Park Assist identified suitable spots for parallel parking, then activated the steering, but the driver had to put the car in forward and reverse gears and handle the throttle and brakes. Now BMW has a fully automated Park Assistant that does everything except activate the turn signal. In the fully automated version, the driver must keep pressing the parking button to remain in the automated mode until the maneuver is complete.
Where is fully automated driving assistance headed? We like the Emergency Stop Assistant because it makes sense, and we could get used to the fully automated parallel parking assistant. We wouldn’t mind the Remote Valet Parking Assistant for parking garages if it was foolproof and hackproof and we didn’t have to wear a Smartwatch to use it.
But beyond parking and emergency stops, where could fully automated driving assistance help? Perhaps late at night after twelve hours of continuous driving and no sleep, if we could flick a switch and have the car take us the next 200 miles home while we slept, that might be nice. As long as we didn’t toss and turn while we napped and accidentally hit the off button before we woke up. Maybe that’s where we would need the Emergency Stop Assistant the most.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
