from the what-happens-if-it-bluescreens dept.
In February, Volvo had announced that in 2017 it would test 100 autonomous cars on certain roads in Gothenburg, Sweden.
At this week's Los Angeles Auto Show, Volvo showed its prototype of what the interior of an autonomous car might look like. It features a folding tray table built into the driver's door, a 25-inch video display in the glove compartment, and a tablet-like screen in the center console.
The Chinese-owned automaker demonstrated three different configurations of the interior: "Drive," in which a person drives the car; "Create," in which the occupants occupy themselves with reading or using a laptop computer; and "Relax," in which the driver's-side seat reclines and the occupants look at videos on the 25-inch screen.
Björn Annwall, a senior vice president at the company, said that its planned autonomous cars would be developed together with Microsoft, and that the two companies are "exploring a number of different collaborations."
[Additional Coverage After the Break]
Additional Coverage:
Previous stories:
- Australia to Run First Robo-Car Trials in Sleepy Adelaide
- Volvo Integrating iPhone in Upcoming Cars
- Self-parking Volvo Ploughs Into Journalists
Related Stories
bopal writes:
"The German news site heise.de writes [German language only] that soon you can interact with your iPhone from the built-in touchscreen of their cars. The idea is shown in this youtube.com video."
The press release speaks of the advantages (in sales-speak) of integrating a large portrait-oriented touch screen with an advanced voice control system like Siri.
This comes at a time, where Switzerland is contemplating of moving against large built-in screens in cars, as they are distracting for the driver http://readzer.com/."
[Update: 05/28 23:38 GMT by mrcoolbp : It appears the driver was testing the auto-braking and/or pedestrian detection packages that the car didn't seem to have. The human driver was in control of the vehicle. This is an at-fault driver, not a 'self-driving' incident. We apologize for any confusion.]
As a group of journalists gathered in the Dominican Republic to report on the self-parking Volvo XC60 (video of the accident available), the group watched as the car reversed itself, then drove into the crowd at speed:
The accident may have happened because owners have to pay for a special feature known as "pedestrian detection functionality," which costs extra. The cars do have auto-braking features as standard, but only for avoiding other cars — if they are to avoid crashing into pedestrians, too, then owners must pay extra.
"It appears as if the car in this video is not equipped with Pedestrian detection," Volvo spokesperson Johan Larsson told Fusion. "This is sold as a separate package."
The pedestrian detection feature, which works using radar behind the grill and a camera in the windshield, costs approximately $3000. The two men injured in the accident were bruised but otherwise OK.
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
The Register is reporting plans to hold trials of driverless cars in Adelaide - not simply to test the cars themselves but also to determine what is required to support automated driving technologies in terms of infrastructure and manufacturing.
The scope of the trials seems limited: there'll be two days of tests on November 5th and 6th to coincide with a conference. How many cars and how far they'll go hasn't been discussed, but the cars will apparently drive around the airport, the Southern Expressway and Tonsley Innovation Park.
It's hoped the trials "will establish how driverless technology needs to be manufactured and introduced for uniquely Australian driving behaviour, our climate and road conditions, including what this means for Australia’s national road infrastructure, markings, surfaces and roadside signage,” according to the ARRB's group managing director Gerard Waldron.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Sunday November 22 2015, @09:36AM
Volvo is just playing at being an interior decorator now...
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday November 22 2015, @11:39AM
This is what happens when the PHBs take over. It's too risky to do proper innovation, so they resort to reinventing the user interface and cutting (internal) costs.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2015, @10:36AM
Attention, Chinese workers. American managers know how to manage you. Continue making things, while your American managers attend meetings to decide what you should be doing for your American managers. Keep your American managers in the loop, because American managers know what is best for you. America is #1 and always will be forever for all time.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 22 2015, @11:55AM
Isn't that precious. I won't be buying a Volvo. I'd much rather the automaker hired people and made their own damned operating system and interfaces. Any of the automakers can start with just about any unix-like, for little to no cost. Hire the right people, it's a finished product in a year or two, ready for deployment. Hire the wrong people, and you're still no worse off than hiring Microsoft.
Can you code BSOD's on Unix?
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Sunday November 22 2015, @12:17PM
New perspective of the very old joke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2015, @10:22PM
11. Whenever you reach for the turn signal lever, Clippy would get in the way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2015, @04:14PM
Auto makers should standardise the components and API's and let people install whichever certified OS they like. This is one situation in which a monopoly over secure boot certificates is justifiable on safety and liability grounds.