Intelligent Cars

Many have imagined the day that cars would be able to drive themselves and, the reality is, they're not far from it. The first car manufacturer to introduce these kind of features was the Toyota Motor Corporation. Their Lexus the Toyota Prius models were provided with an Intelligent Parking Assist System (IPAS), which allowed the cars to park on their own. The first IPAS's included parking sensors and reverse cameras. Now Toyota vehicles are available with reverse auto-aligning cameras, side mirror cameras and self-park systems.

Audi’s latest self-drive/park feature is another testament to the automotive industry's application of innovative technologies. The Audi A7 is now capable of driving and parking itself.....remotely. Owners are now able to activate and recall their cars from the parking lot using their mobile devices. When you arrive to the mall, you literally stop in front of the entrance. Leave the car in the middle of the road. Click Park, using the application on your phone. Then the car will find the closet spot available - safely of course. When you leave the mall, click Pick Up on the application and you can expect your car to pick you up shortly.

If you thought Audi's remote driving system was impressive,  Mercedes may blow you away. It's developing self-driving technology in its S-Class models. The car is capable of reaching any destination. It is able to keep a safe distance from cars, stop at traffic lights, slow down for pedestrians and stay in the center of the lane. Let's just say this car sounds safer than an abuelo behind the wheel. It may be hard to believe, but we are close to being able to read a book, have a meal or behind the wheel while arriving at the destination safely. While it may be hard for most of us to trust a car that basically controls itself, the video below shows you just how close we may be....to actually letting the car drive us. 

The Bugatti Veyron

“It’s like the Nissan GTR on LSD: it alters the way in which you perceive the world around you.”
-Angus Mackenzie.

It goes from standstill to 400 km/h in less than one minute. It has an average top speed of 408.47 km/h. It is faster than any other production car in the world. And that’s because it’s not just any production car: it is built out of technology and materials from outside of the automobile industry. To start, the front and rear frames are constructed from high-strength aircraft stained steal, welded in the same way as aircrafts are, taking from 80 to 90 hours to make one of these handcrafted parts. It’s produced by Heggeman Aerospace, a company involved in building jets and rockets, and who is also responsible for the car’s hydraulic rear wing. This wing is one of the features that make this car so special. It makes sure that at a speed from 220 km/h, it provides a down force of 3.425 newtons.

Oddly enough, this is not even its main function. If you are moving at these kinds of speed, you better have a good set of brakes. Although the carbon fibre C/SiC (reinforced silicon carbide) composite discs already make up of 2/3 of the breaking power, the other 1/3 is coming from the rear wing, set in an angle of 55°. To control the rear wing you need something unimaginably fast to measure the cars speed and changes in its speed. Here’s where the technology comes in. We are talking about a sensor unit that is actually the fastest piece in the car. It measures the time it takes a pulse of light to follow a wire, hit a magnet and reflect back as an ultrasonic sound wave. This information is then being sent to the car’s computer, which calculates how to react. When accelerating above 220 km/h, it will adjust into an angle of 15°, and when increasing into 370 km/h, it will even change into an angle of only 2°.

When making high speeds stops, the computer will put the wing in a 55° angle, in only four tenths of a second, so that the car brakes from 400km/h to standstill within a distance of 0.5 km and less than 10 seconds. To be more precise, the car can make stops from 200 km/h to a complete standstill in 2.2 seconds. So actually this car brakes faster than it accelerates (0 to 200 km/h in 2.5 seconds). Thus, the 4000 hp. needed to brake greatly exceeds its 1001 hp. of motive power.

If you’re not yet in love with this car, all it will take is one drive. In contrast with most supercars, driving, racing and handling this car is simple, even your granny can do it, all thanks to the car’s computer. It controls the traction, the stability, the rear wing, the heat production, and so on. This incredible piece of intelligence is essential to the extraordinary accomplishments of the Bugatti Veyron.