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Schedule including this lecture.
Goddard Space Flight Center Engineering Colloquium
Date: Monday, November 4, 2002
From the development of electric starters (which stopped injuries resulting from the jarring recoil of crank start motors) to seatbelts, airbags, antilock brakes, and forward and rear crumple zones, automotive safety has come a long way.
There is certainly a compelling need for advances in this area. More than 41,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2000. That's nearly enough to fill Baltimore's Camden Yards baseball stadium. The next step envisioned by carmakers takes aim at the ultimate goal: keeping cars from crashing. Radar- and lidar-based systems that prevent rear-end collisions on highways and fender benders in stop-and-go traffic have already hit the road. Other technologies are on the way: to keep an eye on what the driver is doing, ensuring that his focus remains on the road; to keep onboard distractions to a minimum; and to sense what driving conditions are from moment to moment. Sensors on cars will even take the angst out of parking your car once you've reached your destination. In other words, cars will soon be able to do much of what drivers now do when guiding cars down the road.
There are still technological barriers and design hurdles to be overcome before cars drive themselves -- not to mention a tangle of legal questions like "Who is liable in the event of an accident?" In the meantime, researchers are also looking at technologies that can limit deaths and injuries when cars do crash. Cars will brace themselves once sensors confirm that a collision is unavoidable, readying the seatbelts and air bags, and putting occupants in the optimal position to withstand impact.
Will Jones has been on the editorial staff at Spectrum, the IEEE's flagship publication, for five years. He covers intelligent transportation systems, as well as electric/hybrid/alternative-fuel vehicles. He is also part of Spectrum's news department, editing both print and Web versions of the Newslog news briefs department, as well as longer news features. Recent focuses have been on engineering employment and technology's response to the 11 September terrorist attacks. He was the Report Editor for the September 2002 special report "9/11: One Year Later".
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