R&D – A biker in the blind spot? Jaguar awakens the senses! –

Posted on by admin

A biker in the blind spot? Jaguar awakens the senses !

R & amp; D - A biker in the blind spot? Jaguar awakens the senses! -

Jaguar is developing an interesting warning system for the presence of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists around the car. Its particularity lies in its ability to engage three of the driver’s five senses: hearing and sight via relatively conventional sound and light alerts…. but also touch, thanks …

Jaguar is developing an interesting warning system for the presence of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists around the car. Its particularity lies in its ability to engage three of the driver’s five senses: hearing and sight via relatively conventional sound and light alerts … but also touch, thanks to an unprecedented "tap on the shoulder" function. !

A tapping to prevent, a tapping to punish ?!

For several years, car manufacturers have been developing technologies capable of recognizing risky situations. These devices use cameras and various sensors, responsible in particular for detecting a moving object around the car or "reading" the signal (white line crossing warning, for example).

All these technologies – and many more! – participate in the development of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), an area in which motorcycle manufacturers have committed to intensify their efforts by 2020 (read our and).

Due to its "Premium" status, the luxurious car manufacturer Jaguar is at the forefront of the development of this type of (high) technology and proves it by presenting its Bike Sens project, designed to warn the "Jaguarist" of the proximity of a pedestrian, a cyclist or a motorcyclist.

Like many competing devices, Bike Sens detects moving objects around the car using various sensors including sonars, then warns the driver. So far nothing really new.

But the methods used to signify danger are out of the ordinary by appealing to the maximum of available senses: sight (light alerts), hearing (sound alerts) … and also touch thanks to a clever inflatable system installed in the seat back !

When a cyclist or a motorcyclist is detected, Bike Sens activates yellow and red LEDs on the pillars of the passenger compartment and triggers an alarm on the side from which the pedestrian or two-wheeler is coming..

Then the system reinforces its action by briefly inflating the cushion located in the backrest.

Concretely, the driver receives a sort of little tap behind the shoulder, as if to signify: "Attention, two-wheelers approaching from the left". Another possible action: the accelerator pedal hardens when stationary if a risk is detected around the front of the vehicle (see demonstration video below).

Finally, the system vibrates the door opening handle if it detects the arrival of a user from behind, in order to prevent the driver from opening the door under his nose. A situation so common in urban areas that we learn to thwart it from the motorcycle license, in the form of the famous "avoidance" !

And that good old retro, so ?

All these "intelligent" alerts have a single objective: to improve the perception of so-called "fragile" users by motorists. A challenge far from futile when we know that during collisions between car and motorcycle, the motorist did not see the biker in "70%" of cases according to the very documented !

If this innovative system developed by Jaguar, owned by the Indian group Tata Motors since 2008, seems on paper very interesting – even beneficial in terms of accidentology – a few practical questions nevertheless arise..

For example, what about the proper functioning of Bike Sens on overloaded axes such as the Paris ring road, where motorcycles and scooters continually move up the lines of cars? If the system signals every two and three-wheeler, the driver may quickly lose patience (and have pain in the shoulder) !

On the other hand, some will not fail to point the finger at the risks associated with over-assisting drivers, in particular that of seeing their degree of attention decrease on the pretext that on-board technology takes care of it..

However, in a car or on a motorbike, an informed driver is worth two and that this type of device provides potentially useful support. Including for users who never neglect basic visual checks, such as accompanying the inspection of their mirrors with a movement of their head backwards in order to check blind spots when changing direction !

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *