Bosch Night Vision System

Hello everybody,

As I say on my first post, I’m actually working in the Bosch Company. Bosch is the leader in automotive equipment and We will see here one of its useful innovation : Night Vision System.

• Sum up : 

During the night, insufficient lightning and back light are frequent causes of road accident. With classics lights the range of vision is approximately 40 meters. High beam light up the road for a distance of up to 150 meters but also blind other drivers. The Night Vision System is an active infrared night system developed by Bosch. It can turn night into day by increasing the driver vision up to three times further without blinding the other drivers.

How does it work?

• Two infrared headlamps illuminate the road with light beams that are invisible for the human eye.
• A video camera behind the windshield record the scene on the road.
• An Electronic Control Unit (ECU) pass on the image data to a display on the instrument cluster or the central display.
• A display shows the driver a clear black and white image of the driving scene.   

Today’s innovations available in cars

Hello everybody,

Today, electronics are very important and available in most of the cars. We will see here some of the most prevalent security innovation systems  that you can found in your vehicle.

• ABS (Anti blocking System) : It’s a system which prevents wheels blocking in case of sudden braking. This allow the tire to maintain their guiding power and the driver to keep the vehicle trajectory under control. For that,  the ABS detects that the wheel will be blocked. It then reduces the pressure in the brake circuit so that the tire still grip.  It restores the pressure immediately so that braking continues.

•  Airbags : Airbags support the final damping of a shock, after that seat belts have absorbed most of the energy of the occupant of the vehicle.  A gas generator, controlled by a computer, ensures their inflation. Air bags inflate in 30 milliseconds to in complement of the seat belt during the final phase of the shock damping. They reduce of 75%  the risk of serious head injuries. During a shock, accelerator sensors send to the computer information about abnormal acceleration. The computer determine the direction and the intensity and launch inflation of airbags.

• Headlights and Wipers Automated Start : The wipers automated initiation works with an active infrared sensor that detects the presence of water drops on the windscreen by the modification of the reflection that they cause. The ignition of headlights  is controlled by a light sensor passive. The measurement of the brightness is based on a set of photoelectric cells.

•  ESP (Electronic Stability Program) : This stability program assists the driver to maintain control of his vehicle in case of loss of handling. The ASR (traction control) complete the action of this device. Using data from seven sensors, the computer of the ESP acts selectively on the wheels for the car to find the expected trajectory. For this, it works closely with the ABS.

• ASR (Active traction control) : To insure a perfect start on the surface with the handling deteriorated, as sleet or snow, the ASR plays on the torque distribution between the drive wheels. It reduces the torque applied to a wheel which begins to slip and apply it to an other.

• Improved Structure : By its progressive deformation, the structure of the car absorbs impact energy. The programmed deformation structure protects the cockpit. This should dissipate as much as possible the impact energy to preserve the cabin which is, by contrast, very rigid. Automakers takes many years of extensive studies on the programmed  structure deformation of vehicles.

• Additional cornering lights :On winding roads, the inside of bends does not benefit of lightning of the headlights and remains in the dark. A problem eliminated by the additional cornering lights …  Oriented at 40 ° compared to the axis of the car, they light up the inside of the turn. They are automatically disabled
  at high-speed or in reverse.

  

Electric vehicle

Hi!

To introduce the Electric vehicle section, I will write here the most important aspects that you can find in Wikipedia about this automotive innovation domain  :

An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle which uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. Today, we can find 3 main types of electric vehicles :

• Directly powered from an external power station.
• Powered by stored electricity.
• Powered by an on-board electrical generator (an engine for hybrid vehicle or a hydrogen fuel cell).

Electric vehicles first came into existence in the mid-19th century because electricity was the preferred methods for motor vehicle propulsion, providing a level of comfort and ease of operation that could not be achieved by the gasoline cars of the time.

Today, environmental impact and price of the petrol has led to renewed interest in electric vehicle. The electricity consumed by these vehicles can be generated from a wide range of sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewable sources such as tidal power, solar power, and wind power or any combination of those.

The electricity may then be stored on board the vehicle using a battery, flywheel, or supercapacitors. A key advantage of electric or hybrid electric vehicles is regenerative braking and suspension. This ability allows them to recover energy normally lost during braking as electricity to be restored to the on-board battery.

Performances

The power of a vehicle electric motor, as in other vehicles, is measured in kilowatts (kW). 100 kW is roughly equivalent to 134 horsepower, although most electric motors deliver full torque over a wide RPM range, so the performance is not equivalent, and far exceeds a 134 horsepower (100 kW) fuel-powered motor, which has a limited torque curve. Usually, direct current (DC) electricity is fed into a DC/AC inverter where it is converted to alternating current (AC) electricity and this AC electricity is connected to a 3-phase AC motor.

Charging Methods

Electric vehicles typically charge from conventional power outlets or dedicated charging stations, a process that typically takes hours, but can be done overnight and often gives a charge that is sufficient for normal everyday usage.

One other proposed solution for daily recharging is a standardized inductive charging system. Benefits are the convenience of with parking over the charge station and minimized cabling and connection infrastructure.

Battery replacement is also proposed as an alternative but swapping requires standardization across platforms, models and manufacturers. Swapping also requires many times more battery packs to be in the system.

Advantages

Electric vehicles are :

• safe : The United Nations in Geneva (UNECE) said that electrical vehicles are as safe as combustion cars.
• good for environment : Electric vehicles release almost no air pollutants at the place where they are operated.
• comfortable : Electric vehicles provide quiet and smooth operation and consequently have less noise and vibration than internal combustion engines.
• efficient :  It does not consume energy when it is not moving, unlike internal combustion engines.
• cheap : The Volt should cost less than 2 cents per mile to drive on electricity, compared with 12 cents a mile on gasoline.

Future

The average distance driven by 80% of citizens per day in a car in the US is about 50 miles. This statistic, with all environmental and economical aspects,  show that electrical vehicle will take a big part of the market during the next years.

Automotive Innovations Companies

Hi,

Here I want to list some companies which work for a better tomorrow concerning automotive technology :

 

 

http://www.bosch.com

First, I have to talk about my company, Bosch. This company is the world’s largest supplier of automotive components. Bosch’s core products are automotive components (including brakes, controls, electrical drives, electronics, fuel systems, generators, starter motors and steering systems) and it participate in many automotive innovations.

 

 

http://www.renault.com

Renault is a French automaker. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world’s third largest automaker. Together Renault and Nissan are leading electric car development among major car companies, investing 4 billion euros ($5.16 billion) in eight electric vehicles over the next 3–4 years. So it’s interesting for you if you want to know more about electric car to go on this website.

 

 

http://www.teslamotors.com

This company  designs, manufactures and sells electric cars and electric vehicle powertrain components. It was the only automaker building and selling a zero-emission sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in serial production (as opposed to prototype or evaluation series production).

 

 

http://www.ashwoods.org

Ashwoods Automotive launches a complete range of high performance, low-cost EV and hybrid technologies and win an Award for Automotive Innovation in 2011 in the Hybrid technology category.

Hybrid Technology

Hi!

To introduce Hybrid technology I have a website for you : http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-technology.

Here you will find all about hybrid motors, components, history and also shops.

In this section : http://www.hybridcars.com/types-systems/how-hybrids-work.html, You can find basic information about how hybrids work :

When you press the pedal, the embedded computer determine how much power you need depending on how hard you press it. You can see on the dashboard when you are using electric “assist”. Computer is always calculating when Gasoline motor have to do the work alone and when you need boost from the electric motor.

Concerning battery, when gasoline motor powers the wheels it charge the hybrids battery and additional energy is used for regenerative braking.

When you need extra boost, power is used from the Hybrid battery. When you stop, you don’t need the gasoline motor which is stopped. Stored energy is sufficient to keep the car functioning without polluting.  Automakers say the batteries will last a couple hundred thousand miles.

You can find a lot of interesting details about this subject in the website so don’t hesitate to visit it.

Car Technology of the Future Presented By The Auto Channel

Hello,

Here is a video from The Auto channel talking about the future of automotive technology.

Subjects :

– Hydrogen vehicule

– Computer control system

– Wireless security system

 

Bosch Start/Stop system

Hello,

Here is a video explaining the Start/Stop technology

 

Welcome to mikablogauto!

Hello,

Welcome to the mikablogauto. This blog talk about the future of automotive technology.

I’m already working in Bosch company which is worldwide leader in automotive equipment and I want to share with you my passion for new technology concerning performance improvement and ecology subject.

First of all, this is a Bosch video showing the stakes of automotive in the future :