Traffic Pilots Come on Board
Advances in the computer and entertainment industry – in optical and magnetic storage media, displays and mobile communications, for example – are presenting Bosch researchers with new opportunities to improve automobile navigation systems while further enhancing comfort and improving passenger safety.
With large storage capacities of several gigabytes, DVDs and compact hard disks (known as “microdrives”) make it possible to store far more information with a digital navigation map. In the future scenarios formulated by Bosch researchers, for example, it would be possible to provide the navigation map with speed limits on sections of road, curve radii for adaptive headlight orientation, or the relief and altitude profile for optimized adjustment of the transmission and air-fuel mixture. And the goal of all these advances is to improve drivers’ comfort and safety, but also to soften the impact on the environment.
The additional data, but also the new hardware, make it necessary to rethink existing software designs. Extra information for the digital map must be encoded and linked to the existing road map. Since accessing a hard disk is about ten times faster than accessing a CD or DVD, a navigation system with a hard disk can retrieve information from the map material more often and more intensively . In an onboard navigation system, all of the information is contained in the CD or DVD in the vehicle.
The data is up-to-date for only a short time, and a new map CD must be purchased at regular intervals. This is where the advantage of off-board navigation becomes clear: The entire up-to-date map is located on a service provider’s central computer. Through a radio communications module, the navigation device can transmit a route query via SMS, and it immediately receives a recommendation for which road to take.
Hybrid navigation systems will combine the advantages of both approaches: There’s a digital map on a DVD or microdrive in the vehicle, and updates are downloaded from the outside, and that involves lower connection costs than the continual off-board transmission of an entire section of the map. And updates can take place not only via the map; these systems also make it possible to incorporate new vehicle functions (software), including the assistance systems described above and services such as dynamic urban navigation.
The additional data, but also the new hardware, make it necessary to rethink existing software designs. Extra information for the digital map must be encoded and linked to the existing road map. Since accessing a hard disk is about ten times faster than accessing a CD or DVD, a navigation system with a hard disk can retrieve information from the map material more often and more intensively . In an onboard navigation system, all of the information is contained in the CD or DVD in the vehicle.
The data is up-to-date for only a short time, and a new map CD must be purchased at regular intervals. This is where the advantage of off-board navigation becomes clear: The entire up-to-date map is located on a service provider’s central computer. Through a radio communications module, the navigation device can transmit a route query via SMS, and it immediately receives a recommendation for which road to take.
Hybrid navigation systems will combine the advantages of both approaches: There’s a digital map on a DVD or microdrive in the vehicle, and updates are downloaded from the outside, and that involves lower connection costs than the continual off-board transmission of an entire section of the map. And updates can take place not only via the map; these systems also make it possible to incorporate new vehicle functions (software), including the assistance systems described above and services such as dynamic urban navigation.
Left, right, or straight ahead? Darkness hinders the driver, but the navigation system stays alert.
