These Tech Innovations Could Change the Driving Experience as we Know it

While all the attention at the moment is being devoted to autonomous vehicles and the next generation of fuel technology, numerous auto makers, manufacturers and technology companies are working on other plans. Some of these developments have even made it into our vehicles already, although they are yet to progress to a mainstream level of adoption. We take a look at 5 innovative technologies to keep an eye on.

Connected Vehicles

One of the emerging areas which developers are looking into is the way in which vehicles are able to communicate between one another, as well as with key infrastructure. Some car makers have already begun to roll out vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure systems, with uptake only set to become more prolific as self-driving vehicles appear on our roads.

The systems are primarily intended to help coordinate and plan the safe movement of vehicles. However, until such time that all cars and traffic lights are using the technology, it is being used to deliver information about road and weather conditions. Locally, the AAA is advocating for the technology.

Elsewhere, manufacturers have their eyes on delivering software updates like maps ‘over the air’, meaning you won’t have to visit a dealer or find the updates yourself. This comes courtesy of another emerging trend in vehicles, the introduction of Wi-Fi and mobile network connectivity.

Biometrics

Various manufacturers are looking into health monitoring systems that track the vitals of a driver behind the wheel. This includes technology that would identify if a driver was having a heart attack, before safely bringing the car under control. Meanwhile, some companies are looking to address the same issue by investigating the role that seatbelts or steering wheels could play when connected to mobile phones and autonomous vehicles. In other cases, it is biometrics that provide added security to the vehicle or those that help you address journey management and trip planning.

Your New Heads-up Display

To date, several manufacturers have already had a go at developing electronic heads-up displays that project onto your windshield. The next level of progression however, will be a much more intelligent level of technology. Not only will you have access to typical vehicle instrument readings, but developers intend to advance the roll-out of features like night vision, eye and distraction tracking systems (to monitor a driver’s alertness), and even the prospect of augmented reality for navigation.

App Store and In-car Payments

As car manufacturers look into the issue of motorists accessing their phones while driving, some have adopted the belief that the solution lies in accommodating the behaviour of motorists rather than trying to change it. Accordingly, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are being fitted into more and more cars so that drivers have access to certain features found on their phone.

On top of that, however, our in-car dashboards are set to be equipped with payment capability so that you can have greater access to pay things on the go. In the current environment where there has been an acceleration in the shift to digital payments, motorists could soon be looking at a range of efficient means to pay for groceries, takeaway or other goods through their car.

N Is Good: Hyundai i30 Sedan N Line & Kona EV Sets Record.

Hyundai Motor Company Australia has released details of the forthcoming (last quarter, 2020) i30 Sedan N Line. With a bespoke Australian suspension tune, the i30N Sedan N Line is a step up from the striking looking i30 sedan released globally earlier in 2020 The N Line version has its own characteristics with specific performance enhancements and design motifs. This opens the door wider to more customers. Sonata N Line will also be released soon after, complete with a 2.5L turbo four.

Power is provided by a 1.6L turbo four, driving the front wheels via a six speed manual or seven speed dual clutch auto. Peak power and torque figures are 150kW and 265Nm. Paddle shifters and drive mode selections add driving spice, and stopping is brought into play from bigger front brake rotors inside 18 inch alloys. Ride comfort comes from that Aussie tuned multi-link independent rear suspension. N Line trim looks good on the steering wheel, N Sport seats with leather trimmed bolsters, and a metal accented gear selector. Alloy pedals add more visual appeal and there is a bit of tech with wireless CarPlay and Android Auto.The i30 sedan has been given N Line styling, with side skirts, gloss black moulding on the wheel wells and wing mirrors. Hyundai says the sedan has their “Parametric Dynamics” which covers the flowing lines of the body and the assertive look on the cascade grille, complete with N Line identification Aero performance and engine cooling is funneled from arrow-look air curtains in the lower corners. The profile leads the eyes towards the finely sculpted rear which has also been refined for better aero flow. There is an integrated spoiler, chromed twin pipes, and a bespoke N Line diffuser.
Naturally there is an array of safety features including Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist (FCA), Lane Keeping Assist (LKA), Lane Following Assist (LFA), High Beam Assist (HBA), Driver Attention Warning (DAW) and Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance Assist (BCA) with Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (RCCA).

“The new i30 Sedan N Line model will appeal to customers who favour a sporty look and spirited driving performance,” said Thomas Schemera, Executive Vice President, Head of Product Division at Hyundai Motor Group. “The expanded range will help solidify i30’s position as a leader in the small car passenger segment.”

Hyundai also set a new EV record with a trio of Kona EVs traveling, separately, over 1,000 kilometres each on a single charge. 1,018.7, 1,024.1 and 1,026.0 kilometres were the distances covered and run under strict guidelines. All vehicles used in the test were factory-spec and unmodified, equipped with standard Nexen N Fera SU1 low rolling resistance tires in the 215/55R17 size. Each vehicle’s air conditioning and entertainment systems remained off, with available power used solely for propulsion. Only the daytime running lights remained on to comply with the legal requirements for road traffic.

Each distance also represents a record in terms of 64kWh battery capacity, as the power consumption figures of 6.28, 6.25 and 6.24kWh per 100 km were well below the standard value of 14.7kWh per 100km determined by the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). Hyundai recently announced a new sub-brand that will be called IONIQ and dedicated to purely electric vehicles.

Red Planet Rover: Perseverance Pays Off.

Late evening Sydney time, July 30. An Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, on Florida’s south eastern tip. At 191 feet in height, it’s barely half as tall as the mighty Saturn Vs that lifted off from the same area in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It’s also just a few feet taller overall than the full space shuttle assembly.What makes this launch important is the cargo. Perseverance, a new Mars rover and named by Alex Mather, a now 13yo schoolboy from Virginia after NASA had a naming contest, is the reason for the launch and is expected to land on Mars in February, 2021. It’s the newest and better version of the two valiant rovers already on Mars, Spirit and Opportunity. Both landed on Mars in January of 2004, and far exceeded their design specifications.
NASA learned many things from the efforts of the pair, and this includes for Perseverance a better power source, more cameras, and for the mission, a dedicated suite of investigative tools. the aim? To look for signs of any lifeforms, existing or previous, in the landing site on Mars. Jezero Crater is the chosen point, and for the possibility of life due to the postulation water once flowed there. A fan-shaped delta indicates water flow and the clay material is why NASA has chosen that site, with the thinking the clay may have signs of microbial life.

Perseverance itself is a bit of a beast. At roughly the same size as a micro-car, the rover is bristling with tools that will dig, drill, photograph, and listen for the first time ever, to Mars. A pair of microphones have been fitted to Perseverance, along with Mastcam-Z, a stereo-imaging zoomable panoramic camera system. Rimfax (Radar imaging for Mars sub-surface experiment) is a sub-surface (up to 10 metres) radar scanner that along with Perseverance’s autonomous driving programming, will measure the ground under the six driven wheels and hopefully avoid the sandtrap that stopped Spirit in her tracks. A boom arm of 2.1 metres in length and hinged in five places will hold the mechanisms to drill into the surface. In a first, samples will be stored and eventually launched from the Mars surface and rendezvous with a craft and return the samples to Earth. This is expected to be accomplished in a decade’s time.

Sherloc (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) and Watson are the pair of cameras up front, and they’ll work together to provide spectrometry in the ultra-violet spectrum. Supercam is a laser powered micro-imagining device, and perseverance can keep an eye on the weather thanks to an inbuilt weather station called Meda (Mars environmental dynamics analyser) which will measure temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, radiation, and dust particle size and shape. And in an exciting experiment, Moxie (Mars oxygen ISRU experiment) will use the thin Martian atmosphere as a source to see if oxygen can be produced.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the Perseverance design is how NASA has fitted Ingenuity. This is a drone ‘copter, and will fly above Perseverance to map out a way forward, plus it will be the first aircraft to fly upon a world other than our own Earth. The blades are a two by two configuration, and are constructed of a carbon-fibre foam core mix. The landing legs are carbon-fibre, and the blades circulate under a solar panel that will both drive the blades and provide power to the senors & cameras underneath.Perseverance herself is a re-evolution of Spirit and Opportunity. The wheels have been increased from 50cm to 52cm for a greater rolling diameter. The design and the construction of the wheels has changed to allow for more durability with aluminuim and titanium being employed. Extra equipment sees Perseverance up to 1,050kg in mass over a predecessor, Curiosity. She weighed in at 899kg.

Power comes from a plutonium dioxide pack weighing 4.8kg and producing 110 watts. A pair of lithium-ion batteries will supplement this on demand. Dubbed the MMRTG, the multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator replaces the solar panels that are susceptible to dust coverings and subsequent power loss. It’s not cheap to build, at over US$109 million…The expected lifespan is 14 years.Perseverance is due to land on Barsoom, a name given to Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs in one of his early 1900s novels, on February 18, 2021. The landing process is fully autonomous and NASA describes it as “seven minutes of hell” as the lander goes from 21,000kmh to virtually zero to land, safely, on Mars.

Take 5: BMW’s Mid Size Saloon Updated.

BMW have declared 2020 to be the year of reinvigoration. The German sports luxury car maker continues to roll out uipdates in 2020 and the latest is to the mid-sized sedan, the 5 Series. The range brings the seventh generation 5 Series to market with: 520i, 530i, 530d, 530e PHEV, M550i xDrive and M550i xDrive Pure. Included on all variants will be the M Sport package. There has been changes to the fuel pressure system on the petrol engines for the 520i and 530i. They’ll have a bump from 200 bar to 350 bar for better throttle response and fuel efficiency.

Pricing for the range starts from $95,900 for the 520i 2.0L TwinPower Turbo. There is 135kW and 290Nm on tap here for a 7.8 second 0 – 100kmh time. Head to the 530i with 185kW and 350Nm for 6.1 seconds and the price is $115,900. A PHEV joins the range at $118,900 with BMW’s Synchronous Electric Motor and 2.0L TwinTurbo and packs a 215kW and 420Nm punch. 0 – 100 time is 5.9 seconds.
A six cylinder diesel for the 530d sees power at 195kW and a thumping 620Nm of torque for $125,900. The run to 100 takes 5.7 seconds. Moving into the M550i xDrive Pure and it’s a 4.4L V8 TwinPower unit with 390kW and 750Nm. At $137,900 it’s take just 3.8 seconds to reach freeway speeds. For a little extra the M550i xDrive has the same performance but ups the luxury stakes for $152,900. It’s the flagship for the M Performance line and has the fully variable xDrive AWD system. All prices are Manufacturers List Price.

The PHEV has the electric engine integrated with the gearbox and the package can be switched between petrol, hybrid, or electric only for propulsion. When driven in petrol-only mode, the 530e produces 135kW and 300Nm, while the electric motor offers standalone outputs of 80kW and 265Nm. Battery range is around 67km. BMW adds an XtraBoost function. It bumps peak power to 215kW for up to ten seconds when “vigourous acceleration” is required. It’s a standard fitment and engages when the Driving Experience Control’s Sports mode is selected and the drive selector moves to M/S.
Standard trim in the 520i includes the M Sport package, with the exterior features such as 19 inch alloys and Adaptive LED headlights adding visual pull with Dakota Leather trim, Parking Assistant Plus, and Head Up Display are part of the interior features. The 530i adds a Harman Kardon 16 speaker hifi, front heated seats, and automatic tailgate. The M550i xDrive sees 20 inch alloys and M Performance tuning. handling and drive has the M Sport diff and Adaptive M Suspension Professional. A luxury touch is the soft close for the doors and a leather coated instrument panel. Forward vision is courtesy of BMW’s Laserlight system.

That’s available as an option on the BMW 520i, 530i, 530d and 530e, while the BMW M5 Competition donates the M Multifunctional Seats are optionable for all models. Visual spark for the 520i is available with high gloss red M Sport brakes, and a zero dollar option for the rest of the range. A different form of visual appeal can be optioned as well, with the Drive Recorder that uses the surround cameras to provide up to 40 seconds worth of video.
Bend the ear of your local BMW dealer for a test drive when the range is released.