WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.230
A lot of modern cars come with
advanced driver assistance systems,

2
00:00:04.230 --> 00:00:07.850
things like adaptive cruise control that
keeps a safe distance from the car in front

3
00:00:07.850 --> 00:00:10.650
or automated emergency braking
to avoid collisions

4
00:00:10.650 --> 00:00:12.160
or lane assist, to...

5
00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:13.360
keep you in lane.

6
00:00:13.360 --> 00:00:17.170
Which is great, as long as the driver
knows the system's limits.

7
00:00:17.170 --> 00:00:19.320
The worst modern car I've ever driven
came with

8
00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:22.110
adaptive cruise control
that turned itself off

9
00:00:22.110 --> 00:00:23.860
if you went under 20mph.

10
00:00:23.860 --> 00:00:26.480
So if the car in front slowed
down for a traffic jam, so would you,

11
00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.480
until you went under 20,

12
00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:30.980
at which point the car just
handed control off to you

13
00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:32.350
with a very quiet beep.

14
00:00:32.350 --> 00:00:34.594
And if you weren't expecting that...

15
00:00:39.430 --> 00:00:41.390
This is the Global Vehicle Target

16
00:00:41.390 --> 00:00:44.150
and, as of this year, it is
part of the EuroNCAP standard

17
00:00:44.150 --> 00:00:46.630
on how to test the safety of
automated driving systems.

18
00:00:46.630 --> 00:00:48.750
But it isn't just a static foam model.

19
00:00:48.750 --> 00:00:52.880
This base here is a robot platform
that goes up to 50mph,

20
00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:57.010
which means you can test safely with
both vehicles going at highway speed.

21
00:00:57.010 --> 00:00:59.080
Right, my turn in the passenger seat.

22
00:00:59.080 --> 00:01:00.680
I mean, of the real car, not this.

23
00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:02.430
This doesn't have a passenger seat.

24
00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:07.660
- Thatcham Research is a not-for-profit
insurance-funded research centre.

25
00:01:07.660 --> 00:01:12.610
In about 2014, it became clear
that the next generation of technologies

26
00:01:12.610 --> 00:01:15.020
weren't just going to look for
the rear end of the car,

27
00:01:15.020 --> 00:01:16.690
they were going to look
at the side of the car

28
00:01:16.690 --> 00:01:18.280
and even the front of the car.

29
00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:23.220
We've got to have a target that actually
looks like a three-dimensional car.

30
00:01:23.220 --> 00:01:26.620
The impactable bit,
the visual pieces of the car,

31
00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:31.250
are actually foam target blocks
which are assembled to look like a car

32
00:01:31.250 --> 00:01:33.440
and covered with a radar material.

33
00:01:33.440 --> 00:01:36.620
Generally, you can put
the target, from start,

34
00:01:36.620 --> 00:01:38.940
back together in about 15 to 20 minutes.

35
00:01:38.940 --> 00:01:41.080
And what we've done is
we've used test equipment

36
00:01:41.080 --> 00:01:45.170
that actually measures the radar
reflectivity of a real vehicle.

37
00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:47.710
So you get radar reflectivity of a wheel.

38
00:01:47.710 --> 00:01:51.780
And even the glass, the back of the vehicle,
has a certain radar signature.

39
00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:53.920
So it's about putting radar reflectors

40
00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.240
and also radar-absorbent material
in the right place.

41
00:01:57.240 --> 00:02:00.790
So the brand-new tests that
we're going to introduce in 2020

42
00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:03.030
are what we call turn-across-path,

43
00:02:03.030 --> 00:02:06.370
where your vehicle is moving
in front of another vehicle

44
00:02:06.370 --> 00:02:08.670
and we want your vehicle to brake.

45
00:02:08.670 --> 00:02:10.800
We're also developing junction tests

46
00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:13.690
where a vehicle moves
across your path laterally

47
00:02:13.690 --> 00:02:16.370
and therefore we need
to see the side of the vehicle.

48
00:02:16.370 --> 00:02:20.210
And we're confident that if a
vehicle brakes for our target,

49
00:02:20.210 --> 00:02:23.130
it'll brake for a real vehicle
in the real world.

50
00:02:23.130 --> 00:02:24.640
- This should stop in time?

51
00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:26.160
- Yes, yeah.
- OK.

52
00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:27.640
All right, let's do it.

86
00:02:32.922 --> 00:02:33.760
[alarm chiming]

54
00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:33.760
[braking system rumbling]
- Ohhh!

55
00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:35.519
[braking system rumbling]
- Whoa!

56
00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:39.300
First of all, that works.

57
00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:40.600
That's good.
- Yep, we have stopped.

58
00:02:40.600 --> 00:02:42.900
- Oh, that made me feel so nervous.

59
00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:44.690
- It's deliberately late and harsh.

60
00:02:44.690 --> 00:02:48.060
- Radars are very good at understanding
if something is moving.

61
00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:50.020
They can identify what it is.

62
00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:54.259
However, if you just come across
an object and it's stationary,

63
00:02:54.259 --> 00:02:58.660
it's much harder for the radar
to identify that that's a vehicle.

64
00:02:58.660 --> 00:03:03.090
What's the difficulty is understanding:
has the driver seen it?

65
00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:05.010
And what are the driver intentions?

66
00:03:05.010 --> 00:03:07.290
So if you've got a vehicle
that's parked in front of you,

67
00:03:07.290 --> 00:03:09.510
it doesn't want to warn you too early,

68
00:03:09.510 --> 00:03:12.350
because that's gonna annoy the
driver and we don't want that,

69
00:03:12.350 --> 00:03:14.560
because if your driver is annoyed,

70
00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:15.830
he'll turn the system off.

71
00:03:15.830 --> 00:03:18.370
One of the problems vehicle
manufacturers have is

72
00:03:18.370 --> 00:03:21.310
there are not only differences
in the road infrastructure,

73
00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:23.580
but there's actually
national characteristics.

74
00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:27.440
People in Germany tend to drive
slightly more aggressively.

75
00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:29.840
And, therefore, the
issue of false positives,

76
00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:31.510
it's much more of an issue.

77
00:03:31.510 --> 00:03:35.200
Whereas the Swedes will tell
that they're much more benign

78
00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:38.240
and, therefore, a vehicle
that's just stationary,

79
00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:41.440
warning the driver won't
really annoy him too much.

80
00:03:41.440 --> 00:03:44.030
- OK, so what happens if
we go slightly faster?

81
00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:45.820
- Well, we'll try it, and
it should be, you know...

82
00:03:45.820 --> 00:03:47.675
We'll do 40mph rather than 35.

83
00:03:47.675 --> 00:03:48.789
- All right.

84
00:03:48.789 --> 00:03:50.223
(Oh, I don't like this.)

85
00:03:50.223 --> 00:02:32.922
I really don't like this.

86
00:02:32.922 --> 00:02:33.760
[alarm chiming]

87
00:03:58.780 --> 00:04:01.250
Does it slightly brake to warn you?

88
00:04:01.250 --> 00:04:02.160
- Yes.
- Yes.

89
00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:03.960
- You hope, with that little brake,
it's enough for the driver to go,

90
00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:05.257
oh, this is...
something strange is happening,

91
00:04:05.257 --> 00:04:07.540
- Yeah, yeah.
- and do it themselves.

92
00:04:07.540 --> 00:04:09.560
- OK, yeah, that works.

93
00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:10.730
So does the target!

94
00:04:10.730 --> 00:04:12.144
- Yep, yeah.

95
00:04:12.144 --> 00:04:14.190
- Thank you very much to all
the team at Thatcham Research.

96
00:04:14.190 --> 00:04:16.840
Pull down the description
for more about them and their work.

97
00:04:18.900 --> 00:04:20.260
Wow!

98
00:04:20.260 --> 00:04:23.633
There is one tyre upright, just there.