Smart Cars: The Next Frontier

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of driver assistance systems (DAS) in general and the Smart Cars project in particular. In the Driver Assistance Systems Section, a set of key competencies for an effective DAS are identified by comparing with a human co-pilot, namely, traffic situation monitoring, driver’s state monitoring, vehicle state monitoring, communication with the driver, vehicle control, and a reasoning system. It is also recognised that such a system must be intuitive, non-intrusive and override-able. A few of the currently available commercial systems are mentioned in the following section. The Smart Cars project, which is a joint project between the Australian National University and National ICT Australia, is then introduced. A number of different research directions within the project are then presented in detail: obstacle detection and tracking, speed sign detection and recognition, pedestrian detection, and blind spot monitoring.