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This paper discusses radio usage habits observed during analysis of 700 hours of video sampled from the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study database. Analysts used large-scale printouts of each vehicle's radio faceplate and recorded interactions based on video analysis of hand movement and location (without the assistance of audio recordings). The duration and specific manipulations or adjustments were recorded for each interaction. The results summarize the length and type of interactions, most often-used controls, and total percentage of time drivers interacted with the radio.

Vehicle dynamics simulation with Hardware In the Loop (HIL) has been demonstrated to reduce development and validation time for dynamic control systems. For dynamic control systems such as Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC), an accurate vehicle dynamics performance simulation system requires the Electronic Brake Control Module (EBCM) coupled with the vehicles brake system hardware. This kind of HIL simulation-specific software tool can further increase efficiency by means of automation and optimization of the development and validation process. This paper presents a method for HIL vehicle dynamics simulator optimization through Brake Response Time (BRT) correlation. The paper discusses the differences between the physical vehicle and the HIL vehicle dynamics simulator. The differences between the physical and virtual systems are used as factors in the development of a Design Of Experiment (DOE) quantifying HIL simulator performance.

Sixteen participants aged 55–65yrs provided deBoer scale ratings of discomfort glare for a vehicle with horizontally swiveling HID headlamps and a vehicle with the same headlamps that did not swivel in eight scenarios staged in a darkened parking lot. Participants, who were seated in the driver’s position of a stationary vehicle and instructed when to look, viewed the oncoming test vehicles in scenarios of 180m left turn, 180m right turn, 80m left turn, 80m right turn, left turn beside participant vehicle, crossing left in front of participant vehicle, right turn beside participant vehicle, and straightaway, in counterbalanced presentation orders. The swiveling headlamp vehicle provided statistically lower glare ratings in both 180m curves and the 80m right curve and statistically lower or similar in the intersection scenarios than the fixed headlamp vehicle.

Twent-two participants of varying ages detected roadside targets in two consecutive dynamic evaluations of a horizontally swiveling headlamp vehicle and a vehicle with the same headlamps that did not swivel. Participants detected targets as they drove unlighted low-speed public roads. Scenarios encountered were intersection turns, and curves with approximate radii of 70-90m, 120-140m, 170-190m, and 215-220m. Results from the first study found improved detection distances from the swiveling headlamps in left curves, but unexpectedly decreased detection distances in larger radius right hand curves. The swiveling algorithm was altered for the second study, and the headlamps used did not have the same beam pattern as in the first study. Results from the second study again found improved detection distances from the swiveling headlamps while in the larger radius right hand curves fixed and swivel were not statistically different.

It has the aim to discuss the evolution of electronics components, integrated circuits, new transistors concepts and associate its importance in the automotive modules. Today, the challenge is to have devices which consume less power, suitable for high-energy radiation environment, less parasitic capacitances, high speed, easier device isolation, high gain, easier scale-down of threshold voltage, no latch-up and higher integration density. The improvement of those characteristics mentioned and others in the electronic devices enable the automotive industry to have a more robust product and give the possibility to integrate new features in comfort, safety, infotainment and telematics modules. Finally, the intention is to discuss advanced structures, such as the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and show how it affects the electronics modules applied for the automotive area.

The so-called Modified Martempering discussed in this work differs from the standard martempering by that the temperature of the quenching bath is below the Ms point. In spite of the fact the lower temperature increases the severity of quenching, this also usually avoids the bainite formation, and by this reason, it is possible to make a fair comparison between different processes, which result in different microstructures. The present study shows the results in terms of mechanical properties, impact resistance in special of a cold work tool steel class, after being heat treated by the isothermal modified martempering process, as well as a comparison with the conventional quenching and tempering process and the austempering as well.

General Motors has pursued research to develop systems intended to assist drivers in recognizing people or objects behind them when they are backing, and this paper summarizes results from this research. We are currently working with ultrasonic rear parking assist systems, rear radar backing warning systems, and rear camera systems, which are briefly described and their utility for assisting drivers in recognizing people or objects behind them discussed. Our research on driver performance with a prototype long range backing warning system found that audible and visual warning combinations may not be effective in warning distracted drivers about unexpected objects. Driver expectancy is thought to play a significant role in this result. However, further research found drivers were more likely to notice an unexpected obstacle behind their vehicle with a prototype rear view video camera system compared to ultrasonic rear parking assist and trials that had no system.

Mercury is a naturally occurring element and therefore neither created nor destroyed, but pushed and pulled throughout the biosphere. Mercury released in vapor form to the atmosphere can be transported and redeposited via atmospheric deposition. Recent international, federal and state regulatory initiatives have been directed toward effective use management and minimization of toxic substances in manufacturing and commerce. The concern is that these substances bioaccumulate in the food chain, posing a threat to human health and the environment. The most significant human health exposure to mercury is the dietary intake of fish and fish products, since mercury biomagnifies in aquatic species. The Michigan Environmental Science Board (MESB), a task force formed by the state of Michigan, has found a small margin of safety between background (i.e., natural) levels of mercury exposure and concentrations that can cause harm to humans. At the national level, the U.S.

This paper presents an experimental comparative study between the OCTOGONAL-Gate Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) nMOSFET (OSM) and the conventional SOI nMOSFET (CSM) considering the same bias conditions and the same gate area (AG), in order to verify the influence of this new MOSFET layout style to handle high current for automotive modules. Analog integrated circuits (ICs) design tends to be considered an art due to a large number of variables and objectives to achieve the product specifications. The designer has to find the right tradeoffs to achieve the desired automotive specification such as low power, low voltage, high speed and high current driver. SOI MOSFET's technology is required to provide the growth of embedded electronics. This growth is driving demand for power-handling devices that are smaller yet still provide high current driver capabilities.

This paper discusses the recent growth in aluminum wheel popularity and the problems associated with maintaining the wheel's appearance and corrosion protection. The various options in wheel coatings are then described as well as the adverse wheel environment. Finally, the variables affecting wheel corrosion resistance are explained and the testing that is undertaken to evaluate the performance characteristics of the wheel coating.

Loss of power steering assist (LoA) is viewed as a potential hazard in certain vehicle operational scenarios. Despite the importance of this steering failure mode, few published test protocols for the objective or subjective evaluation of vehicle performance in a loss of assist situation exist. The first part of this paper examines five of the key steering failure modes that can result in LoA and discusses why LoA persists as a key industry challenge. The second part analyzes the situational dynamics affecting vehicle controllability during a LoA event and proposes a subjective evaluation driving course that facilitates evaluations in various LoA scenarios. A corresponding objective test procedure and metric is also proposed. These evaluation methods support consistent performance evaluation of physical vehicles while also enabling the prediction of vehicle characteristics early in the vehicle development process (VDP).

Interior permanent magnet machines are being widely used in hybrid vehicles owing to their compact size and high power density. Vehicle level application requires the motor to operate at high speed beyond the base speed of the motor. This is accomplished through flux weakening control. Nonfunctioning of inverter switches and/or gate driver circuit during flux weakening could give rise to a potential fault scenario called Un-Controlled Generation (UCG). This paper gives a detailed background of UCG and its impact on the high voltage and propulsion systems. In further sections the details related to modelling and analysis of UCG will be discussed. Finally, the paper will conclude with simulation results and comparison of the results with motor dynamometer test data.

During the early phase of vehicle development, one of the key design attributes to consider is visibility for the driver. Visibility is the ability to see the surrounding environment as one is driving. This need should drive the vehicle design enabling a move favorable view for the driver. Certain vehicle characteristics such as the size of windshield and the design of the pillar influence the perception of visibility for the driver. One specific characteristic influencing satisfaction is forward up vision, which is the subject of this paper. The objective of this project was to analyze the influence of forward up vision on driver satisfaction under real world driving conditions. Other influences such as the positon of the occupant in the seat was also studied. This study was supported by research, statistical data analysis and dynamic clinics.

With rapid increase of vehicles on the road, safety concerns have become increasingly prominent. Since the leading cause of many traffic accidents is known to be by human drivers, developing autonomous vehicles is considered to be an effective approach to solve the problems above. Although trajectory tracking plays one of the most important roles on autonomous driving, handling the coupling between trajectory-tracking control and ESP under certain driving scenarios remains to be challenging. This paper focuses on trajectory-tracking control considering the role of ESP. A vehicle model is developed with two degrees of freedom, including vehicle lateral, and yaw motions. Based on the proposed model, the vehicle trajectory is separated into both longitudinal and lateral motion. The coupling effect of the vehicle and ESP is analyzed in the paper. The lateral trajectory-tracking algorithm is developed based on the preview follower theory.

We demonstrate here an accounting of damage accrual under road loads for a filled natural rubber bushing. The accounting is useful to developers who wish to avoid the typical risks in development programs: either the risk of premature failure, or of costly overdesign. The accounting begins with characterization of the elastomer to quantify governing behaviors: stress-strain response, fatigue crack growth rate, crack precursor size, and strain crystallization. Finite Element Analysis is used to construct a nonlinear mapping between loads and strain components within each element. Multiaxial, variable amplitude strain histories are computed from road loads. Damage accrues in this reckoning via the growth of cracks. Crack growth is calculated via integration of a rate law from an initial size to a size marking end-of-life.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of alternative workload-based interventions intended to restore driver alertness following drowsy episodes. Unlike traditional drowsy driving studies, this experiment did not target sleep-deprived individuals, but rather studied normally rested drivers under the assumption that low-workload environments could trigger drowsy driving episodes. The study served as a proof of concept for varying the nature and onset of countermeasure interventions intended to disrupt the drowsiness cycle. Interventions to combat drowsiness attempted to target driver workload, either physical or cognitive, and included two primary treatment conditions: 1) physical workload to increase driver steering demands and 2) trivia-based interactive games to mentally challenge drivers. A benchmark comparison condition using music was also investigated to contrast the relative influence of workload-based interventions with passive listening to musical arrangements.

Multiple automotive applications exist for small electric motors that are activated by vehicle occupants for various functions such as window lifts and seat adjusters. For such a motor to be described as high quality, not only should the sound it produces be low in amplitude, but it also needs to be free from pulsations and variations that might occur during its (otherwise) steady-state operation. If a motor’s sound contains pulsations or variations between 2 and 8 cycles per second, the variation is described as warble. To establish performance targets for warble noise at both the vehicle and component level a way to measure and quantify the warble noise must be established. Building on existing sound quality metrics such as loudness and pitch variation, a method is established by which processed sound data is put through a secondary operation of Fourier analysis.

Economic market forces and increasing environmental awareness of gasoline have led to interest in developing alternatives to gasoline, and extending the current global supply for transportation fuels. One viable strategy is the use of alternative alcohol fuels for combustion engines, with ethanol and methanol in various concentration ranges proposed and in-use. Utilizing and citing data from this review, a comprehensive overview of the materials selection and engineering challenges facing metals, plastics and elastomers are presented. The engineering approach and solution-sets discussed will focus on production feasibility and implementation. The effects from the fuel chemistry and quality of fuel ethanol produced on the related vehicle components are discussed.

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.

After-treatment sensors are used in the ECU feedback control to calibrate the engine operating parameters. Due to their contact with exhaust gases, especially NOx sensors are prone to soot deposition with a consequent decay of their performance. Several phenomena occur at the same time leading to sensor contamination: thermophoresis, unburnt hydrocarbons condensation and eddy diffusion of submicron particles. Conversely, soot combustion and shear forces may act in reducing soot deposition. This study proposes a predictive 3D-CFD model for the analysis of the development of soot deposition layer on the sensor surfaces. Alongside with the implementation of deposit and removal mechanisms, the effects on both thermal properties and shape of the surfaces are taken in account. The latter leads to obtain a more accurate and complete modelling of the phenomenon influencing the sensor overall performance.