The Prius will soon drive itself!

That's what my co-worker was saying. With all the new technology, all we have to do is punch in an address and the GPS and it will take us to our destination.

 

That is a fantastic idea. In case you get into an accident, you have no liability. Just blame it on the car. Sue the car, not the occupant...

Keith

 

Quick, someone find a way to override the steering wheel sensor that shuts off LKA. Hawkmoon?

 

There is already a car that allows you to simply say the address you want to go to and then sit back and enjoy the ride. They call it a taxi. It's really exspensive to use on a regular basis and it often is unavailable when you need it most.

Seriously though, I look forward to the day that someone builds the car you describe. One of the reasons I bought my Prius was because it seems like a halfway step toward a self-driving car. By the time I am ready to trade it in I hope a functioning model will be available.

 

well that is really the ultimate goal. a completely integrated roadway system that constantly detects and organizes the road traffic to greatly reduce congestion.

there was a you tube video of someone who video taped test cars driving down the freeway testing auto pilot vehicles. although each still had a driver (just in case) the driver did not drive the car. there were 5 all in a line, driving 65 mph with a following distance of approximately 2 car lengths. the ideology is that if any of the cars receives a signal to brake, all the cars would receive the same message within milli-seconds eliminating the much longer following distance recommended of normal human drivers.

besides greatly reducing congestion, the car, will drive much more efficiently as it will always know ahead of time when it will need to stop ahead for traffic. etc.

granted, a daunting task to coordinate several hundred vehicles on dozens of streets in any given area, but we are getting there much faster than most realize. money is the big stopping point...that an driver comfort. its already been accepted that many will not give up control of the car

 

I'll wait until these cars are past the Tounces the Cat stage.

 

Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere, but not sure of the context to search in.
I'll try and be brief:-
After a couple of weeks and 600 miles (and indicated overall mpg 67) I'm noticing something which was probably also true of a Gen II - On an open highway you can bowl along at whatever speed using the HSI appropriately and achieve reasonable mpg and maintain a good charge in the battery.
You then hit a town or city with 40 or 30 limits and your mpg improves because it uses mainly battery - but there is little regen and if this type of driving continues you deplete the battery until ultimately the ICE has to start, and the battery doesn't really recover until you hit the open highway again.
(The perfect journey might be open highways with occasional small towns?)

If the Prius knew in advance the expected speed of travel and also the expected gradients could it help improve mpg by using the battery power more efficiently?

I don't know how far advanced the digital speed limit mapping is worldwide - I only know of this City of London trial:
Intelligent Speed Adaptation | Transport for London

If such technology could be combined with digital terrain mapping to provide gradients and then all included in the Prius Nav system presumably it would just be a software programme away from "Predictive Battery Management"?

 

Another thread earlier this year, likely on CleanMPG instead of here, pointed to a new predictive cruise control system for longhaul trucks. It uses GPS and a topographic map to better control fuel use. Such a system would be wonderful for hybrid car battery management. The $$ savings per user will be small compared to the big rigs, which is likely why it reached the trucking market first.

 

I will second that. I like the lka, however, it stops a little short of what it is capable of doing. It also takes some time to get used to driving with it. I really like using it at night, and yes it does work with good lane markings. I tried to start a thread on the LKA. I don't believe there were very many of them out there to support a discussion. What are other comments on the LKA?
Bob

 

My friends and I were having this exact conversation the other day. You're right. Things ARE moving in that very direction. Also, don't forget about solar power. Now that we have a moon roof that powers up a fan via solar power, imagine the future of solar power and automobiles. Yup...me thinks that the car itself will be running on solar power. (maybe not 100% on solar, but eventually, I think you'll see that option! Very exciting!)

We've all seen solar powered cars before. That's actually nothing really "new", but most, if not all of current solar cars are privately built and owned. There was a solar car that passed through New Orleans recently. The owner and his crew were on a trek around the country in the solar car. Very space-age looking. Very, very cool!

The real test is gonna be releasing solar powered/half solar powered cars commercially. I can definitely see Toyota jumping on that in the near future. They can make it happen. It's just the next step.

Great thread!

 

Solar powered cars for the consumer market will not be collecting much of their own solar energy. They will be mostly ordinary BEV (Battery Electric Vehicles), powered by solar collectors on your house roof or some other stationary installation. Solar energy simply isn't dense enough for personal vehicle demands.