Traffic safety Inc Australia

Every day we keep reading about new development for self driving cars. now our question is who will be decide when self driving cars are safe enough to be unleashed on our roads?

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The companies

While companies like Tesla, Waymo, Uber, Volvo keep releasing egomaniac statement about their car is safer etc... and they will run an automated vehicle from coast to coast in the US by 2019, Not such interesting since we have run automated vehicle across the Nullarbor plains in Australia , from Adelaide to Perth over 5000 km of highway. What exposure to other traffic did we get? a few road trains, Kangaroos, but still 5000 km so does that count as as success story or a fund raising activity, to us an intent for fundraising, nothing for our technology to learn.

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Some results

We get better results and can test our technology to the max. At the testing track at Philip Island Victoria.

• We have encountered many issues between Automated vehicles and normal vehicles, Fishtailing an automated vehicle can lead to tragic results.

• Tailgating an automated vehicles can be another issue.

There are many issues that need to addressed, Change of gradients in road intersection, Automated vehicle can get stuck there all day unless human intervention. so Unless a compromise between road infrastructure and Self driving technologies, it will be an IT race between highly funded research organization that will never reach the perfect goal.

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Social Impact

Not forgetting the social economic Impact which looking at it is like :

• Loss of taxi driver jobs, Truck drivers & many more is to great to allow Driver-less cars

• We do However support Semi-Automated vehicles and full Automation on safety.
  
  
  Conclusion
  

• From What we have seen only 2 Vehicles manufacturers have current models capable of semi automation.

• The only issue is road assets not up to standards for Semi Automation.

While Companies like Transurban here in Australia and Lexus are testing Automated vehicles on major Arterial s, The Automation requirement needed to operate on your major roads is the lowest level of automation. You can't go wrong there, there is a big difference in level requirements between inner city and freeway automation. I wonder if the purpose of doing this is to build social acceptance since most of those project are government funded?

Social Acceptance Automated Vehicles

Hello all

Traffic Safety Incorporated a not for profit organization conducted Social acceptance automated vehicles road trials In the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia,

The social acceptance trials were conducted at Various locations

We presented a level 5 Automated vehicle to the members of the public, offering members of the public, a lift to a local destination from a Sunday market where we believed members of the public would be most relaxed.

Steering wheel was removed, and pedals, Our prototype is nothing spectacular just a plain modified ford Mondeo, Manufactured in Valencia Spain for the Australian Market.

To our astonishment only 33% of the public offered accepted the challenge, and when asked how they felt about it, Well most people did not like the fact of having 0 control of the vehicle.

We returned to the drawing board, And Installed voice recognition to the vehicle, We disabled all our vehicle guidance systems, and only kept voice commands and of course crash collision system and lane departure warning system. and Modified Adaptive cruise control. ( navigation maps with spoken instructions were not permitted but visual navigational aid were permitted) The navigation app could inadvertently interfere with the traveler instructions

At a later date we returned to the same location that we had visited previously visited with a fully automated vehicle and offered a fully voice driven vehicle. Acceptance of our challenge increased to a 57%. and travelers expressed more joy in the test drive.

Our conclusion on those social road trials were, a bit of a focus changer to our research and development, While we were researching full automation, We concluded that taking all control from the passengers would be a long process, At our general annual meeting We decided to limit our vehicle Automation to a compromise between voice commands and CAV , Passengers must be able at all times to override the system via a least some safety orientated voice commands.

So at the moment our research will be redirected at developing a compromise between CAV and the Traveler.

Being a Non profit organization we are quite happy to listen to your contribution, and would love to hear what you have to say.

Retrotek Australia Automated vehicles road trial looking for testers

Retrotek Australia Automated vehicles road trial looking for testers

Reflective Measurement Systems |

Reflective Measurement Systems |

Reflective Measurement System Australia, Mornington peninsula Automated Vehicles

Reflective Measurement System Australia, Mornington peninsula Automated Vehicles

Mornington Peninsula Automated vehicles road trials conducted last week

Posted by trafficsafe on Jan 16, 2019 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Mornington Peninsula Automated Vehicles road trials conducted last week  Driverless Vehicles

Normally for Automated vehicles road trials The  driverless vehicles acquires  instructions from the road infrastructure but not going to go into that now. On that Day the driverless automated vehicles road trials would be driven by remote control from the support vehicle for safety reasons, We led the passengers to believe the car was driven via Automated Technologies.

A)  On this day, all we did is approach you and explain to you that we were conducting automated vehicles road trials and asked you if you would take a short ride in an Automated Vehicles to a short destination of your choice ,  The car looked like a normal standard car. no sensors were visible, just a plain looking vehicle, many people would not even get in or think it was an automated vehicle, It looks like they expect an automated vehicle to look like a spaceship. Not to many of the general public get the opportunity to feel what it would be to be driven by a driverless vehicle

B) Well some people took the challenge, mostly under 30, older people would not even think of  it, and express that it would not be their cup of tea, Our opinion is that social acceptance will become an issue down the track.

C) The group that was most interested in the vehicles were under 18, imagining that they could borrow their parents car to go somewhere without a licence and under 18. That Was a funny subject but could become a reality.

D) Forget parking send the car back home to park and call it back after work to get home,  i think the best one was when a child asked if it meant that his mum would not have to drive him to school anymore  Imagination ran wild.  anyway we will leave that to your imagination

We expect our next trials to be conducted at the bittern market in the near future.

Why are we doing this?

To gain community support for the only all Australian Automated Vehicles guidance System. We are certainly not getting any from state, federal , council  so it is completely self funded, by us.
We will never manufacture cars nor intend to, All we will be able to do is add the ARDS system to non currently Automated Vehicles here in Australia, a simple safe system.

Driverless Vehicles

Introduction

In this proceedings we engage a telescoped overview of some of the systems for free driving and their feat along with low pointers on the lineament a traveling structure needs to attain to grant innocuous steering for such vehicles. Free systems hold become a hype in the world with the emergence of autonomous vehicle systems. There are many elements required to assign specified vehicle to propose around independently. One of the many grave elements is the pauperism for a highly close map representing the anchorage and its fund. To win this, a convinced speak some moving markings on the existing anchorage. One such situation is the moving grading retroreflectivity values since they lull the visibleness of the markings in day or dark and different hold conditions.

Driverless Vehicles

Welcome to Retrotek Australia in this post we will give you an idea about our driverless Vehicles System Called ARDS

Advanced Road Data System

The System Works Entirely From Road markings , Road Studs for guidance, Let' s say the 2 white are like Train tracks the Driverless vehicle is kept between the White line, Information about speed Zones is fed via the road marking, All information regarding lights, stop, are all fed via road marking Technology ,yellow road studs affect the guidance system. In the next Few post we will elaborate on, How to we measure the minimum standards for the system to operate safely and remain between the two white lines,  Then we will move onto,  how the info is fed to the Driverless Vehicles, safety Systems and more

Some Truth regarding Automated Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles Facts

Lets first start with safe braking distances

As you can see the reaction times and braking times are as follows

Human driver in an emergency will react at a calculated 1.5 sec see fig (1) for traveled distance
Automated Vehicles can respond Quicker we Understand That so eliminating completely the human reaction time ( we will use The 100km /h as a reference) lets eliminate the human reaction factor of 42 m and leave it at 56 m min braking distance (dry road) 80 m (wetroad)
2 Vehicles to avoid a collision head on would need a safety Buffer of 160 M to stop safely without Hitting the other on wet roads ( We have omitted diversion option for this)

A gran total of braking time of 8 sec. per vehicle should just make it if 2 automated vehicle meet head to head and they can detect collision warning at 112 m in less than a second
Well if one is automated and the other is not. the distance increases to 154 Meters
I guess you can reduce that to stopping a car from 8 sec to 2 sec but definitely would not want to be a passenger in it.
There no shorter time/Distance to stop a vehicle safely So as far as we are concerned the Kangaroo jumpers issue , If the kangaroo jumps in front of the Automated vehicle at 50 Meters not matter what technology the vehicle has it is going to hit it at a low speed. by then he is probably gone, its all a matter what distance it jumps in front of the vehicle, Non automated vehicle will hit it 2 just a matter how quick the driver reaction is. So to us the Kangaroo thingy is just a PR spin off .

I have read in a couple of articles that they were considering adding Warning sounds to Automated cars, To us it is a clear admission of what we previously stated regarding Automated Vehicle stopping . Pedestrian. Kangaroos, wombat, We find that hilarious but it could help reduce the problem, We just hope it is good music.

Bottom Line for Kangaroos

Every day that goes by it gets funnier, Uber Hitting Pedestrian, Car Hitting cars, That happens every day. The only difference is that the vehicle is Automated, and that changes the reality in Stoppage, That is absolute nonsense, If the wombat, pedestrian is in the braking distance , it is going to happen and with music as suggested, Automated or not just a matter of seriousness of hitting ( speed )

More Stuff

If that is not done system will fail, The system needs a clear view for detection (if you look on the internet Uber Test site is bare land with roads) so are most test sites for Automated Vehicle. Those people are trying to resolve everything via Algorithm maybe a new approach is needed.
Another concern here is While they tell us about Health could be affected from Mobile Phones, They are quite Happy to allow us to be Exposed to electromagnetic wave, We understand that they are needed for detection but efforts should be made to reduce our Exposure. Research indicate that Over exposure can generate Sterility in males.

Finally

The most important thing to all this is 
Automated Vehicles researchers designer should work together on establishing a uniform starting base.
At the moment its each to their own competing for the world Market, Great ambitions but get real
Believing that Some country road Infrastructure would not have to be Modified to accommodate the new Technology well they are wrong. That s makes it even more difficult for road Authorities, Which system will they support, At the moment in Australia the fight is full on, Uber, Tesla, Volvo, Waymo, Lexus Each lobbying ministers for the support to their system, google Has been quiet visible around Australian Federal Ministers Lobbying.

There is nothing for Australians in those project

Why am i Blogging?

Well it is very simple, A group of us 3 years ago started working on vehicle Automation researching ways that could be achieved.

Before you continue reading we would like to state that the prototype is a vehicle equipped with ADAS, Adaptive cruise control, and crash collision System, The only thing we have researched is Automatic guidance of the vehicles

A year ago we started testing our prototype and we called it Mr Pinger ( the vehicle pings everything in sight)

Initially we had no idea how to drive the vehicle without a driver in control, It started with driving the vehicle on voice commands, ( stop, turn right, turn left etc…) it worked.

So then we made it listen to google navigation commands regarding where to go, (turn left/right, arrived a destination) it worked

The only problems we were left with were Traffic lights stops/go,and speed limit Adjustment, stop signs, give way and so on
Our System works and we have resolved that, We do not need to be connected for navigation or any of the driving, a phone app is enough to take you where you want to, sat nav, That is the only connection that is required unless you want to drive it by talking to the car. defeats the purpose of self Drive. Everything needed for a safe drive is in the car locally and does not need connectivityWhy am i Blogging?

Why am i Blogging?

Probably out of frustration and disappointment

The car Manufacturers

We contacted every vehicle manufacturer that we could think off, Specially the ones that publicly state the millions of dollars they they are spending on research, Uber, Volvo, Waymo,google and more , hoping that we at least we get an email asking us what we were talking about, you never know we could have a solution to some issues they are having

After sending Messages not email just leaving a message type of inquiry, limited to 200 words, well first of all suggestions, Technical, not there, just contact for purchasing, services, closest dealer. Well what can you say in feedback. We are a group of five and we have an automated vehicle, Would you like to know more? you know where that will go to the crazy internet bin, So much for the internet contact pffftttt Waste of time

So lodged it at several Attorneys , so if it ever get developed we will be recognized as the first to successfully use the system not that will stop anyone from using it, nor make us any money, nor stops anyone from developing it , But we were the first to think of it, trial it successfully ( you have to love video cameras)

We will not publish what the ARDS System does fully ,we have said enough about how the vehicle is guided (Lane keeping technology + Voice recognition/data conversion). The Traffic light stops , speed changes, stop signs, turning Technology will not be publicized on the internet. We will give them the respect they gave us nada, bananas.

My local State road Authorities and support

Support from local state Government (nada) probably all my Emails to the minister of roads go to the trash or the spammer box while the minister announces support for research Automated vehicles try to get support what a joke.

The roads Authorities Even gets better can we apply for an automated vehicle trial permit. First question what is your accreditation, is that a joke How can you be accredited for something that does not officially exist. And you designed it and developed it yourself. 
Not going into another requirement Insurance for automated Vehicle , Does that exist ? not that i know off, and the cost ?
That puts me out and anyone else for that matter. The only way it can be done is at the discretion of the minister of roads, The minister refers you to Vic roads and Vic roads conditions request something that does not exist, anyway i vented enough thank you for Reading feel free to comment

Some background

Technical officer data linking Space shuttle alternate landing Location 1981-1984 NAVSTA
AWA Tullamarine Aircraft data linking engineer 1985 1988 Company closed 
abandoned electronic until 2012 and returned into research focused on vehicle guidance system

Retrotek Australia are the developers of an automated vehicles guidance system called Advanced Road data Systems called ARDS Where the vehicle is guided purely by line markings. In simple terms Lane keeping technology on steroids. Speed limits are changed via a simple device proprietary to us , stop instructions, red lights status , slow down, stop , turn left , turn right, anyway not going into how we do that, We currently are running a vehicle Fully automated with very promising Results. Operates from a standard Sat Nav System.

Retrotek Australia is trying and researching into minimizing the connectivity for Automated Vehicles , We see the Connected feature as an invasion of privacy (possible) where on a connected vehicle conversation can be listened to. Passengers can be video recorded, Identified via facial recognition. ( we are not talking about automated public transport systems)

The ARDS sytem can navigate on roads with no line markings but the road requires to be ARDS compatible
The System can detect human , Kangaroos , Wombat and rabbits ( the last 2 the system has missed a few times ) wombats and rabbits have gone to the bottom of priorities.

Retrotek Australia is staying away from connectivity for the following reasons
1) all connected vehicles are based on visual data acquisition, Every thing that the cameras and sensors record or detect are entered into a computer or hardware that is directly connected to a mainframe,
2) Consequently Face recognition software could be added meaning that every connected vehicle is recording you.
3) Imagine going to the city and being photographed 1000 times a day every step you make, How will you privacy be protected ?
4) We at Retrotek Australia do not agree with Connected Vehicle Automation Except in the public Transport field.
5) Our System operates within existing Infrastructure ( Minor Adjustment) and limited to road having being certified for our system ( One part is the certification of line markings, Road Studs, and standards compatible with the current lane keeping Technology.and of course the ARDS system)

Retrotek Australia is quite happy to share how our Prototype guides itself without a driver to the right People. But at the moment the project is at a stand still, since certification of the roads is to slow without the Available Automation equipment available from Overseas ( We can’t Afford it ) so spending days analyzing road data manually, a tedious task.

So far our prototype has Traveled the east link in Melbourne, the peninsula Freeway, the Monash freeway , Domain tunnel, Westgate freeway to Geelong and a few of the major roads. The only problem we encountered was the color of the lighting in the Tunnel affected the Lane keeping technology and the ARDS system forcing us to take control of the vehicle remotely whilst in colored light tunnel, The Bolte Bridge lighting also affected the ARDS system, We will keep testing our prototype MR PINGER, It would be nice if the Victorian supported us but so far no luck With The minister of transport, So MR PINGER has now taken third place after family, work, Mr PINGER but we love MR PINGER. So if you see it around HONK at it showing your support For an Australian Endeavor, We have an Automated vehicles Australian made (By the way MR PINGER is a modified Mercedes Smart car.)

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