Category: Electronics エレクトロニクス

  • Going driverless

    I used to watch Knight Rider on TV when I was a junior high school student. Knight Rider is an American TV series where a hero, Michael Knight, together with a talking self-driven car, KITT, beats the evil and sometimes has romantic experiences with a heroine of each episode. I thought that such a car was just a pipe dream at that time, but the dream will probably come true in a decade or two.

    The development of autonomous cars, or driverless cars, is widespread. Google started testing of the developing autonomous cars on public roads as Nevada state law allowed to do it and issued license plates to them in 2011. Following Google, Audi obtained the road testing license as well from the state government of Nevada in 2013. In the same year, the United Kingdom also permitted road testing of automated cars. In China, Baidu is also planning similar testing.

    Automated driving is categorized into five levels. Level 1 (hands-on) means that driver and system shares control over the vehicle, such as adaptive cruise control where the driver controls steering and the system controls speed, and parking assistance where steering is automated and speed is manual. Level 2 means hands-off, where the system takes full control of the vehicle, including accelerating, braking and steering, but the driver must still keep an eye on the vehicle’s movement in case of unprecedented failures. At level 3 (eyes off), the driver can text or watch a movie while the system is driving. At level 4 (mind off), the driver may go to sleep or leave the driver’s seat while driving. In a level 5 (steering wheel optional) autonomous car, no human interaction is required for driving.

    Some car manufacturers are releasing level 2 or 3 cars to the market. Tesla Motors, one of the leading car manufacturers, released level 2 cars with Tesla Autopilot capability in 2015. Those cars can act automatically on limited-access highways, requiring the full attention of the driver. Mercedes will add automated driving features such as an active brake assist, a steering pilot, a parking pilot, a cross-traffic assist system and braking assist on production cars by 2017. No car manufacturers today succeed in making level 4 or 5 cars.

    There are some hurdles to achieve the development of level 4 or higher. Possible software bugs may lead to sudden malfunction and put drivers and passengers at risk of a traffic accident. Crackers may hack the system and do some destructive actions. Laws and regulations should be properly arranged by politicians knowing well about an autonomous driving system to cope with possible problems it may cause.

    In spite of these hurdles, things are going step by step. The development of artificial intelligence, or AI, also helps the automated driving system evolve. AI is being wiser and wiser over time. AI being installed in the system will dramatically quicken their pace of evolution. I think some car manufacturers will achieve the development of level 4 cars or higher in a few years. We know the rapid growth of the internet and smartphones. We know that the world was changed to what nobody had even imagined 15 years before. That will be true to automated cars.

    In the world where cars are fully automated, traditional cars will be removed from the roads, because such cars that cannot follow the new order of the traffic will be nothing but obstructions. Driving such cars manually will be totally banned. Driving (or letting the car drive) will be just a means of moving, not fun.

    What should such people who love maneuvers of a traditional, manual-driven car do? Such cars will be parked at dedicated paddocks to play them within a restricted area such as circuits or off-road trails, just as today’s motorsport drivers do. Driving a car will be just one of hobbies like hiking, hunting, yacht sailing, golfing, or fishing. The day when you can handle your car anywhere by yourself will be over.

    Autonomous cars will change the world a great deal. You will think the change might be strange or uncomfortable, but you will have to adapt to it since nobody hasn’t stopped any changes of the times ever before.

  • Navigation / カーナビ買いました

    garmin_nuvi250.jpg
    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    Last week I bought a portable navigation device (Garmin nüvi250) for my car because I had bonus this month and I did “holiday shopping” like an American. Although many cars in Japan have in-dash HDD car navigation systems costing over 300,000JPY with a receiver for Vehicle Information and Communication System (VICS), they were too expensive for me to afford. Nüvi250 has only a GPS receiver and power cables to be connected to a cigar socket or PC’s USB port, so it’s very cost-effective, costing only 38,500JPY! (about one tenth of the prices of traditional HDD car navi) More than that, it is not only sold within Japan but used worldwide, because Garmin is an American company. Nüvi250 is widely distributed in UK, European countries and the USA (in the USA, nüvi200 is sold instead of 250).

    This device is simple and does not provide traffic information to avoid jamming routes, but GPS reception accuracy is very good. It displays an accurate position of where you are driving, keeps track of your driving routes, and calculates routes to destination very fast. Road maps are very simple, and easy to see while driving. It is very useful for 38,500JPY navigation device, as long as you use it just as a navigator.

    As it is removable from your car, you can carry it with you anywhere, on the street or on the train, and you can install it to a rental car in a district far from your home town or even in a foreign country, just by plugging the power cable to its cigar socket. When you leave your car, you can put it off the car and in your pocket. There are no risks to be stolen.

    Navigation is navigation. No functions more than navigation are necessary. PNDs are the most reasonable navigation system of today and more and more devices will be released in a few years, because you have only to pay the reasonable prices for necessary and sufficient capabilities.


    今月のボーナスで、先週カーナビを買いました。といっても日本のクルマに多い30万円もする据え付け式のVICS付HDDナビなどとても買えないので、今はやりのポータブルナビ(PND)というやつです。米国のGarminという会社のnüvi250で、GPSレシーバーの付いた本体をシガーソケットに挿して使うタイプで、お値段はなんと38,500円!(普通のHDDナビの十分の一です)米国のメーカーなので、日本だけでなく、欧米など世界中で使われています(米国はnüvi200という名前です)。

    シンプルなので、交通情報や渋滞情報を出してくれたりはしませんが、ナビとして使う限りでは、38,500円のものとしてはこれで十分です。GPSの捕捉精度も良く、位置を正確にとらえてくれますし、ルート計算もメチャ速! 地図もシンプルで見やすくなっています。
    取り外し可能なので、道を歩いていても、電車の中でも、どこへでも持ち運べます。遠くの場所や海外でも、レンタカーに乗るとき、シガーソケットに差し込むだけで使えます。車から離れるときは取り外してポケットに入れることができるので、盗難の危険もありません。

    ナビはナビ。ナビゲーション以上の機能は必要ありません。PNDは今日最も合理的なカーナビゲーションシステムだと思います。必要十分な機能に適正な値段を払えばいいわけで、今後数年でますます増えていくことでしょう。