The next generation of car automation will combine passive microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors with active actuators that will increasingly "drive" cars in hazardous situations to avoid accidents, experts said. Look for active safety systems to increasingly take on tough driving conditions on the way to driverless vehicles by the end of the decade. R.C.J.
According to panelists at a Freescale event in Orlando, Fla., this week, most drivers want to retain control of their vehicle despite the success of current traction control systems that compensate for certain driver-errors during skids. As a result, fully autonomous navigation systems won't appear anytime soon for two reasons: drivers need to know that they are in control and unsolved methods for transferring control back to the driver after an incident. The short-term solution, according to Freescale's Demetre Kondylis, is zero-tolerance for common failure modes that could defeat mandated redundancy in automotive systems. This can be accomplished by embracing the convergence of passive sensing and active actuation of responses in future safety systems designed to prevent accidents.
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