Till a few years back, if someone told you that you could summon your car towards you from a parking spot, you would have probably laughed at that person. But that’s a reality today, not only from some fancy foreign OEM manufacturers but our own home companies like Tata and Mahindra.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) entered India only in 2020, first on the MG Gloster but the system rapidly gained popularity and now most new cars have it in their top models, including sub-compact cars less than 4 metres in length, like the Honda Amaze. Small SUVs like the Hyundai Venue and Kia Sonnet are also getting these features, so what exactly is this about? Let’s talk about the world of connected automobiles.
There are basically three types of connections here. Firstly, car technology that assists you in day-to-day driving. Then there are connected technologies which talk to you and the service centre directly. And the third part is where cars talk to each other – this is still at a nascent stage. let us start with ADAS.
ADAS can be primarily divided into different levels, depending upon the scale of automation that a vehicle provides. Level 0 is – you guessed it – where the vehicle does not have any aids but can have certain functions like parking sensors, 360-degree cameras, traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning, night vision, blind spot information system, rear-cross traffic alert, and forward-collision warning.
In Level 1 of ADAS, the driver is still fully in control, and the driver aids that will help you are adaptive cruise control (where the car speeds up or slows down depending on the vehicle in front of you), automatic emergency brake assist (here the vehicle can automatically brake hard depending on your pedal inputs), and features that help you stick to your lane – like lane keeping, lane assist, lane change etc.
This can be done by means of warnings on the dashboard and steering wheel vibrations – depending on the vehicle. Level 2 is the most prevalent at the moment, because Levels 3 to 5 give more control to the vehicle, with level 5 being fully autonomous. Well known model, actress and rally driver Gul Panag says “ADAS is a useful assistive layer in modern cars, especially for fatigue management, highway driving, and collision mitigation. Given our traffic conditions and long drives, driver drowsiness is a very real concern. This becomes even more critical in commercial vehicles like trucks and buses, where drivers going off to sleep or suddenly changing lanes without looking is one of the leading causes of road incidents.”
One of the most useful parts of ADAS is the Blind Spot Monitor (BSM). Called a number of names by various manufacturers, it involves cameras that see the driver’s blind spots and notify by way of a flashing light or dashboard warnings. The emergency braking system may also get activated if required. Rear cross traffic alert (RCTA) works in conjunction with the BSM to warn drivers of approaching vehicles when reversing out of parking spots. Then of course there is a Driver Drowsiness detection. Sensors mounted on the steering wheel or cameras look for driver fatigue forms like facial patterns, sleep looks, driving habits etc. This triggers the alarm, and most vehicles will also show a coffee cup or something else in the driver’s display as a warning. Intelligent speed assist (ISA) has the ability for the vehicle’s cameras to read speed signs and adjust vehicle speed accordingly.
Forward Collision warning (FCW) monitors vehicles in front and if you get too close to another vehicle in front, which could be a two or three wheeler. However FCW does not work well in Indian conditions as the minimum distanced maintained with the vehicle in front is quite low, so more often than not it needs to be turned off. Similarly features like lane keeping assist (LKA) don’t work very well on our roads due to the absence of clear lane markers.
Lets now look at the second type of connectivity. One way is a vehicle specific app, which gives you control over monitoring vehicle condition, remote starting, setting up of a geo-fence for vehicle movement, valet modes or even remotely turning on the HVAC. These items can today be controlled both from phone and watch apps. OEMs also can read fault codes directly from the engine control units (ECU) of your vehicle and remotely solve most problems with your vehicle or even upgrade software.
The third and most evolved level of connectivity is coming where cars will be able to talk to each other, irrespective of brand or model. This is being worked upon and currently exists mostly within same models of a particular brand, but this technology will become more widespread. The idea is to share road data like road condition, traffic and weather alerts and other such type of information that can help plan a trip or change course midway.
The world of automobiles is changing. Nearly 31.3% of all new cars sold today are using ADAS in some form or the other as per data given by society of Indian automobile manufacturers (SIAM). This however is growing substantially and by the year 20230, most vehicles sold on our road could be smarter than you think. A parting shot from three times Asia-Pacific rally champion winner and Arjuna awardee Gaurav Gill: “ADAS makes your real world drive much safer, but the system is meant to assist you, and not take over driving. So remain alert and enjoy your personal butler on the road.”
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