Search Results

Being able to integrate consumer electronics (CE) devices into the automobile is an increasingly important goal. In this paper, we focus on the HMI (human machine interaction) aspects of consumer electronics in the car. We describe the requirements concerning HMI integration of consumer electronics and offer several possible solutions. One of the requirements is minimal driver distraction. A desired property in this context concerns the mental model that the user builds of the service that is to be operated: ideally, this model (i.e., appearance and interaction logic) need not change when integrating the service into the automobile, even though the operating elements differ considerably (e.g., touch screen vs. iDrive commander). A further requirement is posed by the dynamic nature of CE services: often, they are not known at design/deploy time of the HMI software of the automobile.

Advanced Driver Assistance systems support the driver in his driving tasks. They can be designed to enhance the driver's performance and/or to take over unpleasant tasks from the driver. An important optimization goal is to maintain the driver's activation at a moderate level, avoiding both stress and boredom. Functions requiring a situational interpretation based on the vehicle environment are associated with lower performance reliability than typical stability control systems. Thus, driver assistance systems are designed assuming that drivers will monitor the assistance function while maintaining full control over the vehicle, including the opportunity to override as required. Advanced driver assistance systems have a substantial potential to increase active safety performance of the vehicle, i.e., to mitigate or avoid traffic accidents.

As the popularity of vehicle navigation systems rises, incorporating Real Time Traffic Information (RTTI) has been shown to enhance the systems' value by helping drivers avoid traffic delays. As an innovative premium automaker, BMW has developed a testing process to acquire and analyze RTTI data in order to ensure delivery of a high quality service and to enhance the customer experience compared to audible broadcast services. With a methodology to obtain valid and repeatable RTTI data quality measurements, BMW and its service partner, Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network (TTN), can improve its offered service over time, implement corrective measures when appropriate, and confidently ensure the service meets its premium objectives. BMW has partnered with TTN and SoftSolutions GmbH to implement a traffic data quality process and software tools.

Cutting development times in car manufacturing means bringing forward the knowledge processes. Simulations based directly on CAD data reduce or replace time-consuming hardware loops significantly and therefore make a significant contribution to this. Ergonomic product design is an area that is challenged as far as the further development of virtual methods is concerned. Simulation of the static and quasi-static positions of passengers inside the car is the current state of the art in ergonomic product design. For this reason, interest is strongly focused on the simulation of complex movement processes within the context of enhancing simulation tools. For the car manufacturer, the manner in which people enter and leave the car is of particular interest. Getting into the car is the customers' first actual contact with it. It may also develop into a serious problem for car drivers, as they get older.

A new generation of BMW child seat and occupant detection system SBE2 for a smart airbag system is described. The SBE2 system consists of two subsystems: OC (occupant classification) and FDS (field detection system). The OC system is a force-sensitive sensor array that measures a pressure profile. The FDS system detects child seat and occupant according to the change of electrical field generated by four capacitive plates. Combining the signals from both subsystems, the BMW SBE2 system can distinguish fully automatically between a child seat and a person.

Highly Automated Driving (HAD) opens up new middle-term perspectives in mobility and is currently one of the main goals in the development of future vehicles. The focus is the implementation of automated driving functions for structured environments, such as on the motorway. To achieve this goal, vehicles are equipped with additional technology. This technology should not only be used for a limited number of use cases. It should also be used to improve Active Safety Systems during normal non-automated driving. In the first approach we investigate the usage of machine learning for an autonomous emergency braking system (AEB) for the active pedestrian protection safety. The idea is to use knowledge of accidents directly for the function design. Future vehicles could be able to record detailed information about an accident. If enough data from critical situations recorded by vehicles is available, it is conceivable to use it to learn the function design.

During early phases of interior car layout a lot of different aspects have to be considered like crashworthiness, regulations, philosophy of the company etc.. Ergonomic aspects do not always play the most important role in these cases. Since aspects of comfort in cars are getting more and more important in nowadays these aspects should be taken into account very early in the interior car layout process. This paper shows a way to design the interior layout of a car from scratch for a good postural comfort for all anthropometries with the aid of a digital human model (RAMSIS). The novelty of this approach is to use the digital human model to design the interior and not to verify or correct an existing one.

The importance of the automotive interior as a characteristic feature in the competition for the goodwill of the customer has increased significantly in recent years. Whilst there are established, more or less efficient CAE processes for the solution of problems in the areas of occupant safety and service strength, until now the implementation of CAE in themes such as dimensional stability, warpage and corrugation1 of plastic parts has been little investigated. The developmental support in this field is predominantly carried out by means of hardware tests. Real plastic components alter their form as a result of internal forces often during the first weeks following production. The process, known as “creep”, can continue over an extended period of time and is exacerbated by high ambient temperatures and additional external loads stemming from installation and post assembly position.

A top-of-the-range car customer not only expects exceptional vehicle design and quality but also a driving experience, which is out of the ordinary. Very harmonious interaction between vehicle dynamics and the steering system is required to offer clients such a consistent driving experience through generations of vehicle models. In this paper the basic properties of a premium driving experience are explored. It is shown that outstanding handling limits are a prerequisite, although most customers never experience such driving situations. In fact, on-center behavior is most crucial in enabling clients to experience part of premium driving performance, and the steering system is the key factor in delivering appropriate feedback to the driver by means of steering torque. Development procedures are presented to achieve the goals described above.

Optimizing protection for side impact in vehicle design requires valid information about occupant behavior under lateral loading. For this reason a comparison of numerical models of dummies and human body in side impact scenarios is shown to estimate the benefits of using numerical human models in future safety design. First a well-known sled test set up was simulated to compare the two devices in a defined surrounding. After looking at the kinematics, the loads, accelerations and injury values of the occupants were derived and compared to each other. Second the occupant models were positioned in a vehicle model to compare their behavior in a more complex loading case, such as an EuroNCAP Barrier Test. Focus of this investigation was the injury mechanism occurring in the human model. The Behavior of the Dummy and H-Model is comparable and shows similar responses in a global view.

The analysis of the acoustic behavior of flow fields has gained importance in recent years, especially in the automotive industry. The comfort of the driver is heavily influenced by the noise levels and characteristics, especially during long distance drives. Simulation tools can help to analyze the acoustic properties of a car at an early stage of the development process. This work focuses on the low-frequency sound effects, which can be a significant noise component under certain operating conditions. As a first step in the fluid-structure interaction workflow, the flow around a series-production vehicle is simulated, including passenger cabin and underhood flow. The complexity of this model poses extensive demands on the simulation software, concerning meshing, turbulence modeling and level of parallelism. We conducted a transient simulation of the compressible fluid flow, using a hybrid RANS/LES approach.

Reductions of hardware costs as well as implementations of new innovative functions are the main drivers of today's automotive electronics. Indeed more and more resources are spent on adapting existing solutions to different environments. At the same time, due to the increasing number of networked components, a level of complexity has been reached which is difficult to handle using traditional development processes. The automotive industry addresses this problem through a paradigm shift from a hardware-, component-driven to a requirement- and function-driven development process, and a stringent standardization of infrastructure elements. One central standardization initiative is the AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture (AUTOSAR). AUTOSAR was founded in 2003 by major OEMs and Tier1 suppliers and now includes a large number of automotive, electronics, semiconductor, hard- and software companies.