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Down to
Earth
with Professor Vicki
Sara
How smart is your car?
Human error causes more than 90 per cent of road accidents, the ramifications of which are staggering - trauma, injury, death, grief, health care, insurance, road repairs and so on.
Thanks to Australian innovation, however, we are reinventing road transport and making driving a safer activity.
Professor Alex Zelinsky, a scientist at the Australian National University and Chief Executive of spin-off company Seeing Machines Pty Ltd, is at the forefront of developing 'intelligent vehicles'.
"Lane departure warning, driver fatigue warning, and automatic lane-following functions are already in place in some prototype and test vehicles," Professor Zelinsky says.
"A more sophisticated function is the 'adaptive cruise control', which combines the function of standard cruise control with an inbuilt sensor to determine distance from other vehicles so that, even if the control is set to 100 kph for example, a slower vehicle in front will cause the speed to drop to a safe level."
Professor Zelinsky's research has enabled Seeing Machines to win major international contracts with companies like Volvo.
"Trucking fleet owners take a very progressive attitude to accident prevention," Professor Zelinsky says.
"Modern truck fleets have no place for cowboy drivers, and drivers are often paid a bonus for safe driving. This costs the company far less than accidents, trauma and litigation."
Professor Zelinsky, whose research is funded by the Australian Research Council, describes the next stage of active safety devices as sensors that detect pedestrians and prevent the vehicle from making contact with them.
It's easy to imagine myself sitting back and letting my car take me for a ride, so I must remind myself that, despite Professor Zelinsky's impressive work, I will still need to occupy the driver's seat.
"We're not going to see fully automatic vehicles, but vehicles with tightly tested warning systems to aid the driver. The driver must always remain in control," Professor Zelinsky says.
For more information about this project, contact Professor Alex Zelinsky at the Australian National University on 02 6125 6501.
Professor Vicki Sara is CEO of the Australian Research Council.
Published in the May 2004 issue of Friday Magazine.
(Photograph courtesy of the Australian Greenhouse Office)
