AUTO MANIA: by Dr. Iain Corness [email protected]

Autonomously driven

Drive me home, James!

Most of the major automobile manufacturers have moved on from experimental hybrids to autonomous cars, which will whisk us to our destination with a silent “chauffeur” dealing electronically with all the usual road hazards.
To show just where Mercedes-Benz are in this timeline they demonstrated their Mercedes-Benz S500 Intelligent Drive autonomous prototype, recreating the historic drive of Carl Benz’ wife Bertha.
In August 1888, Bertha Benz started off on the first long-distance automotive drive in history in the Patent Motor Car of her husband Carl Benz, thus paving the way for the worldwide success of the automobile. Her route, which ran southward from Mannheim to Pforzheim for around 100 km, was used by Mercedes-Benz developers as the real test track for another pioneering achievement in mobility exactly 125 years later: proof of the suitability of autonomous drive systems for everyday use in the highly complex environment of overland and urban traffic.
“This S-Class spells out where we’re headed with ‘Intelligent Drive’ and what tremendous potential there is in currently available technology,” says Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board of Management at Daimler and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
“With our successful test drives, we have demonstrated that highly automated driving is possible without the luxury of specially closed-off sections of road and relatively straightforward traffic situations,” says Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management at Daimler with responsibility for Group Research and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Development.
This experience will now be incorporated into the engineering of future vehicle generations to be equipped with such innovative, further-developed functions. Thomas Weber stresses: “With the new S-Class, we are the first to drive autonomously during traffic jams. We also want to be the first to provide other autonomous functions in series production vehicles.
The now successfully conducted autonomous test drives along the Bertha Benz route allowed the Daimler researchers to gather important information on the challenges that remain to be addressed on the way to highly and fully automated driving and what, for example, still needs to be done to enable a car to navigate safely in highly complex situations.
Improvements were made to the number and arrangement of the sensors in order to achieve comprehensive coverage of the vehicle’s surroundings in every direction, and to obtain additional information on the area around the vehicle. Examples of specific technical modifications compared with the standard-production version of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class are the enhancement of the base width (distance between the eyes) of the stereo camera to allow more-distant objects to be detected not only by the radar system, but also by the camera, and a new color camera for the monitoring of traffic lights.
The autonomous research vehicle records the entire sensory data collected by the vehicle, which flows in at a rate of 300 gigabytes per hour from the images of the stereo camera alone.
Based on these sensor data and determination of the vehicle’s own position with reference to information from a digital map, an autonomously driving vehicle analyzes the available free area for driving and plans its own route. In addition to the road layout, this map - which must meet special requirements with regard to accuracy - includes information on the number and direction of traffic lanes and traffic signs as well as the positions of traffic lights. Digital maps of this kind are a key prerequisite for autonomous driving.
The autonomously driving S-Class was monitored during the tests by specially trained safety drivers who, whenever the system made an incorrect decision, were able to intervene immediately and take over control of the vehicle. A record was made each time it became necessary for the safety driver to take over control of the vehicle. This information was then evaluated by the development team, thus making it possible to extend the vehicle’s repertoire of maneuvers. This advances the development of the technology platform, enabling it to cope with more and more traffic situations.
A particular challenge for autonomous vehicles is the way in which they communicate and interact with other road users. Coming to an agreement with an oncoming vehicle on who should proceed first around an obstruction is something that requires a very great deal of situational analysis. Where a human driver might boldly move forward into a gap, the autonomous vehicle tends to adopt a more cautious approach. This sometimes results in comical situations, such as when, having stopped at a zebra crossing, the vehicle gets waved through by the pedestrian - yet the car stoically continues to wait, because M-B failed to anticipate such politeness when they programmed the system. (Local readers will understand that this situation will never happen in Thailand!)
I have no doubt that driving oneself to the shops will have a totally different meaning to it in five years, though it will probably be 10 years before it becomes commonplace. One of the biggest hurdles will be the litigation aspect. When an autonomous car collides with me self-driven one - who is to blame?

Custom 1939 Rolls Royce Phantom Pick-Up

The Ultimate Pick-up?

This 1939 Rolls Royce Phantom (chassis 3DL70) was offered with little information on its eBay listing, but some quick Googling reveals it was recently custom built from a non-running donor car in order to replicate the factory truck Rolls used to deliver finished Merlin V12 aircraft engines during WWII. The quality of work seems to be very good, and note that the bed was donated from a 1930’s Ford pick-up. Find it on eBay in Saint Augustine, Florida for USD 150k OBO.
With RR (BMW in reality) talking about an SUV Roller in 2016, perhaps the pick-up will be the next variant?

Something strange here as well

Wot izzit?

Spotted out along Siam Country Club Road is this rather large behemoth. American I must assume, and has been given the chop top treatment. Anyone throw some light on the subject?

Nissan gives the GT-R a little less R and more GT

Godzilla

Nissan in Japan has released the 2015 version of its celebrated GT-R, known colloquially as “Godzilla” for its prodigious horsepower from the turbo V6 engine. At one stage in Australia it was banned from competition because nothing could get near it! It is still one of the fastest production cars around Germany’s Nurburgring.
However, this succeeding version has been tweaked in the suspension department, rather than the under the bonnet (which is more than adequate).
The softening up of spring rates and shock absorbers has made the ride less jarring on anything other than motorway smoothness. This makes it more ‘gran turismo’ in line with its GT-R badge.
Nissan’s engineers claim the new shocker settings actually help the GT-R’s cornering, being able to be compliant with the road imperfections to aid stability and allows the driver to better choose the best driving line.
“The same modifications reduce the amount of steering corrections necessary on rough roads, adding a further sense of security in less than ideal driving conditions,” Nissan says in its media release.
The high-performance tyres have also come in for attention, with improved materials and a fresh inner structure that is said to deliver better straight-line stability and increased stability over uneven road surfaces.
Brakes have been revised for better stopping power and less noise, while a number of modifications have been made to address noise, vibration and harshness.
The drivetrain has been modified to reduce backlash, while the steering damper has been changed to address vibration through the steering wheel at idle.
The throw-out bearing in the flywheel housing has been changed to reduce noise, while a new boot carpet material improves noise insulation.
Nissan engineers describe the revised GT-R as “more civilized”, with “dramatic” improvement to ride quality.
They say previous engineering efforts had mainly focused on the “race” element of the GT-R’s handling, but this time more attention was paid to the effortless touring side of owning a GT-R.

FIA releases F1 Provisional 2015 calendar

March 15 Grand Prix of Australia
March 23 Grand Prix of Malaysia
April 12 Grand Prix of China
April 19 Grand Prix of Bahrain
May 3 Grand Prix of Korea (TBC)
May 10 Grand Prix of Spain
May 24 Grand Prix of Monaco
June 7 Grand Prix of Canada
June 21 Grand Prix of Austria
July 5 Grand Prix of Great Britain
July 19 Grand Prix of Germany
July 26 Grand Prix of Hungary
August 23 Grand Prix of Belgium
September 6 Grand Prix of Italy
September 20 Grand Prix of Singapore
September 27 Grand Prix of Japan
October 11 Grand Prix of Russia
October 25 Grand Prix of USA
November 1 Grand Prix of Mexico
November 15 Grand Prix of Brazil
November 29 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi
The F1 calendar above, and those quick with mathematics will see that there are now 21 Grands Prix slated for 2015. Is this too many? With the problems and expenses involved in a GP weekend, many teams were too financially strapped this year, with Marussia having gone completely to the wall. Caterham looks to be next. “Lotus” and FIndia are also shaky. And what is the FIA doing about it? Extra races will certainly not have improved matters. But they have at least scrapped the ridiculous double points for the final GP.

Touring cars come to Thailand

The FIA World Touring Car Championship 2015 Calendar is also released, and our new Chang International circuit at Buriram is hosting the WTCC event next November. I will be running at Buriram in the TBX Retro Escort next week and will give you my impressions of the circuit after that.
March 8th - Termas de Río Hondo, Argentina
April 19th - Circuit Moulay El Hassan, Morocco
May 3rd - Hungaroring, Hungary
May 16th - Nordschleife, Germany
June 7th - Moscow Raceway, Russia
June 21st - Slovakiaring, Slovakia*
June 28th - Paul Ricard, France
July 12th - Vila Real, Portugal
September 13th - Motegi, Japan
September 27th - Shanghai, China
November 1st - Buriram - Thailand
November 22nd - Losail, Qatar*

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I asked what car is this? It had tiller steering and was the first affordable series-produced car with interchangeable parts. What was it? It was the Curved Dash Oldsmobile of 1903.
So to this week. The first motorcycle (1896), retractable undercarriage and a car that would jump trenches in the war have something in common. What was it?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].