Design thinking
fundamental and its
critical role in Car
designing.
By :Shreyanshi Shukla
Design thinking
We are living in an automotive world where customers are seeking for the
best vehicles, equipped with more information that has been collected from
more sources than ever before. Customers today are becoming increasingly
sophisticated and impatient. Adding to this is the prevalence of social
networks and the internet that has led on to an increased customer-to-
customer interaction. Hence the customers know what they want and they
know how and where to get it.
Design thinking means keeping the customer in mind all the time
while driving innovations which are technologically feasible and economically
viable. Manufacturers around the world have drawn their attention to design
thinking as a concept of innovation management as the organizations have
opened their minds to learn from designers in being creative and innovative.
Design
Thinking
Process
Adaptive cruise control (ACC)
Introduction
The number of traffic accidents and injuries continues to increase year by year, and annual traffic fatalities in Japan remain
at over 7000. Under these conditions, there is an urgent need for technologies which can mitigate the serious damage
caused by car accidents, as well as prevent the accidents themselves. Some members of this study have played active
roles in a study group for the Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV), a project conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and are involved with ASV research and development. This study group has
proposed and studied safety technologies such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Precrash Safety Systems. Some of
these technologies have already been put into practical use.
An ACC system maintains the vehicle at the speed set by the driver, and
when it detects a preceding vehicle travelling at a slower speed than the driver’s
vehicle, it controls the vehicle speed to match the speed of the preceding vehicle.
It also performs following control to maintain the level of distance between vehicles
which was set by the driver (a distance proportional to the vehicle speed).
There has been past research for ACC systems aimed at designing a vehicle
following distance control system using linear approximation and linear control logic.
However this research has not succeeded in producing natural vehicle behavior that
meets the drivers' expectations.
ACC System Configuration
Primary ACC Modes
The ACC system supports four control modes :
Constant velocity control: when there are no vehicles straight ahead, or when there is a large distance
between the driver's vehicle and the preceding vehicle, the system maintains a constant vehicle velocity.
Deceleration control: when a vehicle traveling ahead at a slower speed is detected, the system uses the
throttle to decelerate the driver's vehicle. If this deceleration is insufficient, the system uses the brake to
decelerate the vehicle.
Following control: When the driver's vehicle is following behind the preceding vehicle, the system controls the
throttle and brake so that the time interval between the vehicles (which corresponds to a distance between the
vehicles that is proportional to the velocity of the driver's vehicle) is the time which was set by the driver.
Acceleration control: When, due to a lane change, there is no longer a vehicle ahead of the driver's vehicle,
the system accelerates the vehicle up to the velocity set by the driver, and then maintains a constant velocity.
Furthermore, when the driver's vehicle approaches a vehicle ahead of it without slowing down enough, an alert
buzzer and display prompt the driver to apply the brakes or take other appropriate action.
Thank you
