The Korean electronics behemoth unveiled a prototype tractor trailer
that allows vehicles behind large lorries to essentially see through the
vehicle. Samsung calls it the Safety Truck, and it is fitted with a
wireless camera on the front and four large exterior monitors on the
truck’s rear. The company says motorists behind the rig see exactly what
is happening in front of it, enhancing drivers’ awareness of overtaking
safety, whether during day or night. The Safety Truck is just a
prototype for now, but Samsung’s in talks with non-government agencies
and governments to do more testing. Jaguar Land Rover sees smooth sailing ahead
(Credit: Jaguar Land Rover)
As if the British marque’s products didn’t
already offer some of the cushiest rides on the road, Jaguar Land Rover
(JLR) is now tapping its Advanced Research Center in the UK to develop a
new pothole detection system, aptly named Pothole Alert. The technology
will use road-surface sensors, paired with forward-facing stereo
digital cameras on the Range Rover Evoque, to scope out potholes and
broken manholes, and even detect how deep they are. JLR intends to pair
Pothole Alert with its current MagneRide system, which can adjust the
suspension in milliseconds to match road conditions, and ultimately
wants the technology to detect and drive around potholes for its driver.
JLR also plans to send real-time pothole data into the cloud, so that –
in a presumably linked future for passenger-car communications – other
drivers may access it and respond to road conditions accordingly. Will your next car pay for itself?
(Credit: BMW Group)
The sharing economy is no longer just for
wide-eyed optimists. Mini announced that it would offer a DriveNow
package for its US cars staring in 2016, allowing owners a simple way to
rent out their vehicles by the hour. (Think of it as sharing, with a
capitalistic twist.) Owners can also add friends and family to a list of
people who can use the car for free. DriveNow has formerly been used
for fleet rentals, but this is the first time individual Mini owners can
use it for their own purposes. Similarly, Ford Motor divulged details
on its own peer-to-peer car-sharing programme, which just launched in
London and six US cities. Ford says young Americans rank their cars just
under books as something they’d be most likely to share. Audi has lunar fever
(Credit: Audi)
The German luxury automaker joined the Google
Lunar XPrize mission – a challenge to land an unmanned rover on the
Moon’s surface, drive at least 500 metres (1,640ft), and send
high-definition video and images back to Earth. Dubbed the Lunar
Quattro, the space vehicle is made mostly of aluminium, and wears a
solar panel hooked to a lithium-ion battery back that feeds four
electric hub motors. Audi is helping to finance the rover being built by
a Berlin-based team, called Part-Time Scientists. Grab your telescope
and look for the vehicle cruising round the former landing site of the
Apollo 17 mission sometime in 2017. This robot drives cars – and itself
(Credit: Darpa)
A vaguely dystopic development this month. The
winner of the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(Darpa) Robotics Challenge managed to drive itself around in a car this
month, then exited and rolled around on its own knees to finish other
tasks. The winning ‘bot completed a series of natural disaster obstacles
such as walking over rubble, turning off valves and flipping a circuit
breaker. Having defeated its robot competitors in the timed race, the
wheeled overlord earned $2m in prize money for its feeble underlings. US military working on Star Wars-like hoverbikes
(Credit: Malloy Aeronautics)
At the June Paris Air Show, UK-based Malloy
Aeronautics announced it was teaming up with Survice Engineering in the
US to build a hoverbike for the US Department of Defense. As our
colleagues at BBC News reported,
the bike will be a Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicle (TRV), with both
manned and unmanned “flights” possible, but for the moment the prototype
sooner resembles a drone with a motorcycle seat bolted in the middle
than a fearsome war machine.
The partners have not divulged performance figures or even how movement
will be achieved, though it’s fair to assume tree-dwelling Ewoks will
not be among its enemies in the field. If you would like to comment on this or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
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