Intelligence in the Automobile of the Future

One trend that has been apparent in the automobile market over recent years is that more and more new vehicles from an ever-increasing number of manufacturers have been available with driver assistance systems. Most of these driver assistance systems reli

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Intelligence in the Automobile of the Future Arne Bartels, Thomas Ruchatz, and Stefan Brosig

Abstract One trend that has been apparent in the automobile market over recent years is that more and more new vehicles from an ever-increasing number of manufacturers have been available with driver assistance systems. Most of these driver assistance systems relieve the driver of simple measuring and control tasks. Intelligence in the vehicle, however, means more than just measuring and controlling. The vehicle has got to acquire information, arrive at an interpretation and establish contextual interconnections. To do this, it needs contextual information and action options. This chapter presents an architecture for vehicle assistance systems in order to acquire, process, and evaluate environmental data, thereby bringing the objective within reach. Also, it presents certain selected projects by Volkswagen Group Research in the area of automated driving which are based on this architecture for environment perception. Keywords Intelligent automobile • Driver assistance systems • Environment perception • Sensor data fusion • Situation interpretation • Automated driving • DARPA urban challenge

3.1

Definition of “Intelligence”

First of all, it is helpful to briefly address the concept of intelligence, because it is through intelligent actions that future driver assistance systems will differentiate themselves from current ones:

A. Bartels (*) • T. Ruchatz • S. Brosig Group Research, Driver Assistance and Integrated Safety, Volkswagen AG, 1777, Wolfsburg D-38436, Germany e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] G. Schmidt et al. (eds.), Smart Mobile In-Vehicle Systems: Next Generation Advancements, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9120-0_3, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

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Definition from a psychological perspective: . . . an ability which makes it possible to deal with novel situations. It is expressed in the acquisition, implementation, interpretation and establishment of relationships and contextual interconnections. . . (Bertelsmann Lexicon) . . . a collective term for the cognitive capacity of human beings, i.e. ability to understand, abstract, solve problems, apply knowledge and use language. (wikipedia.de)

Definition from an information technology perspective: . . . artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the emulation of human intelligence within information technology. Artificial intelligence is being increasingly used in engineering sciences and medical technology. Possible application scenarios are: dealing with natural signals (understanding images and detecting patterns). (wikipedia.de)

The definition from a psychological perspective indicates that an intelligent driver is essential in order for a vehicle to be guided on the public road. Even simple driving maneuvers such as adjusting the vehicle’s speed to a speed limit as well as complex maneuvers such as turning off at a busy inner city intersection demand the acquisition