Building the zero-fatality car

[^_^ 5,021]

In the future, new cars might include an appealing sticker: This car is rated for zero fatalities.

Over the next 10 to 20 years, car companies will rely increasingly on computer simulations and virtual engineering to build safer cars and help reduce fatalities. With magnesium and carbon-fiber parts in strategic locations, active safety systems that slow the car as it follows curves in the road, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication that warns you about approaching traffic, future cars will be much safer to drive.

...

The zero-fatality goal is achievable, according to Ed Kim, an analyst at automotive research firm AutoPacific Inc. in Tunstin, Calif. In the next 10 years, there will be a confluence of safety technologies -- such as road-sign recognition, pedestrian detection and autonomous car controls -- that lead to safer cars, says Kim.

Getting there will require carmakers to develop and strengthen an underlying technological infrastructure that can support intense crash simulations using tens of millions of data points, as well as a robust communications network that sends out safety signals between cars. The result will be the deployment of new active safety methods that can predict a crash and drive you out of a jam -- literally.

(a lot more detail at the source link - http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179697/Car_tech_Building_the_zero_fatality_car)

[Peikko 1,575]

In the future, new cars might include an appealing sticker: This car is rated for zero fatalities.

Over the next 10 to 20 years, car companies will rely increasingly on computer simulations and virtual engineering to build safer cars and help reduce fatalities. With magnesium and carbon-fiber parts in strategic locations, active safety systems that slow the car as it follows curves in the road, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication that warns you about approaching traffic, future cars will be much safer to drive.

...

The zero-fatality goal is achievable, according to Ed Kim, an analyst at automotive research firm AutoPacific Inc. in Tunstin, Calif. In the next 10 years, there will be a confluence of safety technologies -- such as road-sign recognition, pedestrian detection and autonomous car controls -- that lead to safer cars, says Kim.

Getting there will require carmakers to develop and strengthen an underlying technological infrastructure that can support intense crash simulations using tens of millions of data points, as well as a robust communications network that sends out safety signals between cars. The result will be the deployment of new active safety methods that can predict a crash and drive you out of a jam -- literally.

(a lot more detail at the source link - http://www.computerw...ro_fatality_car)

The thing I don't like about this, is that the more of these driver error safety features they install, the less good a driver the person behind the wheel needs to be, which is fine when everything is working tickety boo, but when it all goes horribly wrong? Still, I guess if it mostly works well, then the person 'driving' the automatic while texting with one hand and setting their hair with the other with one foot dangling out the window is not going to be a threat to other traffic at least not most of the time

[natty bumppo 289]

the world will simply supply a better idiot thus negating the zero-fatality feature ...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

the world will simply supply a better idiot thus negating the zero-fatality feature ...

If they can build a car that saves my family from an idiot driver, they've sold me on it.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

If they can build a car that saves my family from an idiot driver, they've sold me on it.

What if it catches on fire?

[^_^ 5,021]

What if it catches on fire?

Then the zero fatality car will absorb hydrogen and oxygen from the surrounding air, synthesize water and give itself a bath.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Then the zero fatality car will absorb hydrogen and oxygen from the surrounding air, synthesize water and give itself a bath.

Count me in!

[SMR 368]

In the future, new cars might include an appealing sticker: This car is rated for zero fatalities.

Over the next 10 to 20 years, car companies will rely increasingly on computer simulations and virtual engineering to build safer cars and help reduce fatalities. With magnesium and carbon-fiber parts in strategic locations, active safety systems that slow the car as it follows curves in the road, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication that warns you about approaching traffic, future cars will be much safer to drive.

...

The zero-fatality goal is achievable, according to Ed Kim, an analyst at automotive research firm AutoPacific Inc. in Tunstin, Calif. In the next 10 years, there will be a confluence of safety technologies -- such as road-sign recognition, pedestrian detection and autonomous car controls -- that lead to safer cars, says Kim.

Getting there will require carmakers to develop and strengthen an underlying technological infrastructure that can support intense crash simulations using tens of millions of data points, as well as a robust communications network that sends out safety signals between cars. The result will be the deployment of new active safety methods that can predict a crash and drive you out of a jam -- literally.

(a lot more detail at the source link - http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179697/Car_tech_Building_the_zero_fatality_car)

Count me in as very skeptical. This all sounds good on paper but we're talking about a car that can override the driver in major ways. Software of any complexity is never bug free. We're talking about very complex software.

[^_^ 5,021]

Count me in as very skeptical. This all sounds good on paper but we're talking about a car that can override the driver in major ways. Software of any complexity is never bug free. We're talking about very complex software.

The least buggiest software is very, very expensive. It is not sold to consumers and sure as heck won't end up in some car for the consumer market.

[Peikko 1,575]

The least buggiest software is very, very expensive. It is not sold to consumers and sure as heck won't end up in some car for the consumer market.

So these texting, haridoing, legdangling morons that 'drive' automatics aren't going to be rendered safe in the near future - they'll just think they are? Fabulous!

[slim 1,514]

I want to see the car that still has zero fatalities when a 50,000 lb. big rig slams into it on the freeway.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

I want to see the car that still has zero fatalities when a 50,000 lb. big rig slams into it on the freeway.

:rofl:

[Ban Hammer 12,857]

I want to see the car that still has zero fatalities when a 50,000 lb. big rig slams into it on the freeway.

the above woulda been a good test. this one just happened in missouri yesterday. yes, that is a suv between the bus and rig.

[slim 1,514]

the above woulda been a good test. this one just happened in missouri yesterday. yes, that is a suv between the bus and rig.

Those people in the SUV survived though, didn't they?

I heard two students were killed, were they in the SUV or were they on one of the buses?

[Ban Hammer 12,857]

Those people in the SUV survived though, didn't they?

I heard two students were killed, were they in the SUV or were they on one of the buses?

suv driver and one kid on a bus. there was two buses involved, the one not pictured rammed the one in the picture.