- A lot has been happening at the Volkswagen Electric Research Laboratory (ERL); they have been busy developing technology may revolutionalise driving experience in a VW car. Cars with the ability to self-drive and self-park have been developed, and are now in the later stages of testing. Not only these, there is a whole lot more going on at the lab. We list them:
Traffic Jam Pilot
- The Traffic Jam Pilot was previewed in an A7 concept car, and word is that it will make its way to the next-gen A8 production model in 2016. This tech takes complete control of the car at speeds up to 64kph in traffic jams, when the system is activated. It has already been tested by VW for thousands of kilometers on US roads.
- The Traffic Jam Pilot uses laser sensors, laser scanners, stereo cameras and ultrasonic cameras. ERL’s head of driver assistance systems, Jörg Schlinkheider, says that this is a scalable piece of technology that can be used on the entry level VW Golf to a range topping Audi A8. He also adds that the use of HD maps is important beyond the car's cameras and sensors, because the car needs to know what lies beyond a corner if it can't see and adapt accordingly.
Autonomous Parking
- This is also likely to make an appearance by 2016, and allows the car to park itself into a suitable space once it has been found. The system connects with the driver's smartphone, allowing him to instantly abort the manoeuvre if a danger is detected. With this tech onboard, cars can park themselves into tight spaces with just about 20cm on each side.
Steering wheel mounted touchpads
- This piece of technology is still in its initial stages. Touchpads are mounted on either sides of the steering wheel and allow the driver to input commands using their thumbs. Although this is being developed keeping the global markets in mind, it is easier to use these touchpads in English and Western European alphabet.
Connected Cars
- VW is coming up with a technology that it hopes will connect cars on the road. The company is looking at this technology to allow cars talk to one another about a whole host of functions – to tell the other cars about traffic conditions, road conditions, hazards on the road, etc. This will help make the flow of traffic faster and smoother.
iBeetle App
- The iBeetle allows full iPhone integration to the VW Beetle. The app docks into the car and allows functions such as the ability for tweets and Facebook posts to be read on the move, pictures to be taken and uploaded directly to Facebook, and the ability to record driving logs and data – such as the amount of time spent driving with the roof down – and uploaded to social media.
Photo Souvenir
- This piece of technology shows that the car is a machine that is capable of learning. The car is mounted with four GoPro cameras which take a picture every five seconds. This way, over a two hour journey, some 6,000 pictures are taken which amounts to 32GB data. Since this is too much for someone to go through, the car does the job for the driver, and picks out the best pictures possible to upload on social media.
- More than just simply taking pictures to select and share on social media, it actually learns more about the likes and dislikes of the drivers, and the car can later give suggestions accordingly.
Smart Accessories
- Accessories such as surfboards and bikes are linked to the car through the cloud. If they were to be stolen, you’d be informed on your smartphone or smartwatch. The ultimate goal is to have increased connectivity between all sorts of products, so that when someone tries to use or sell the stolen product, it will be able to connect with smart technology and state that it is stolen.
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