Welcome to the B.A.D.D.I.A blog page for all our latest news and informationDID you know that you must renew your Photocard Driving Licence every 10 years?
Old style paper licences are not affected.
CLICK HERE for DVLA’s leaflet which should be sent to you two months before the photo expires.
Source: DVLA website
Drivers are being reminded of the problems that litter can cause on motorways and major A roads as the Highways Agency’s summer “Bag it! and Bin it!” campaign against roadside litter gets underway.
- Along a six mile stretch of the M3 motorway near London (between Junctions 1 and 2), our workers collected 189 refuse bags of litter in one night during planned maintenance work. This was around a tonne of rubbish.
- On 34 miles of the M1 between junction 24 and junction 30 in the East Midlands, roughly 2500 refuse bags of litter are collected each year.
- In the North West, in the first six months of this year, just over 32,100 refuse bags of rubbish were collected from Highways Agency roads.
For the Highways Agency, litter is not only unsightly but also a threat to the environment. Clearing rubbish puts workers at risk of injury, and diverts resources away from road maintenance and repairs. Litter can also block roadside drains and cause localised flooding, and items thrown from vehicles can be a hazard to other road users.
To get across the “Bag it! and Bin it!” message, the Highways Agency is distributing paper litter bags from its exhibition stand at events this summer. The bags are both biodegradable and recyclable.
We want to remind drivers to keep a bag for rubbish in their vehicle, and use it to store their litter until it can be thrown away safely in a bin, either when they break their journey or get to their destination.
Derek Turner, Highways Agency’s Director of Network Operations, said:
“Everyone agrees roadside litter is unsightly, and clearing it up from the roadside takes up valuable resources that could be used elsewhere. We want everyone to help us keep England’s roads clear by getting into the habit of keeping a bag in their vehicle to store their rubbish until they can find a bin for it.”
The “Bag it! and Bin it!” campaign against roadside litter is being backed by the RAC Foundation for Motoring and the IAM Motoring Trust.
Sheila Rainger, Deputy Director of the RAC Foundation, said:
“With rubbish, there’s no such place as ‘away’ - every piece of litter tossed onto the carriageway has to be picked up by someone. Throwing litter onto the road is a filthy habit and there’s no excuse; it’s a waste of money which could be better spent on repairs and maintenance; and it’s a safety hazard for everyone who has to dodge bags, cans and bottles on the road. Bag it and bin it, or take it home and recycle it - whatever you do, no-one else wants to see it.”
Neil Greig, Director of the IAM Motoring Trust, said:
“It’s not uncommon for bottles and other pieces of litter to roll around the driver’s feet and get caught up under the brake pedal. If you have to brake suddenly, this could have a devastating impact on the likelihood of an accident. Simply bagging your litter in the car could be a lifesaver - a tidy car is a safe car.”
Source: Highways Agency website
The design guru has seen the future of transport, he tells Martin Hickman: solar-powered electric vehicles.
The G-Wiz, with its green and economic credentials, is here to stay.
Britain’s most famous inventor, Sir James Dyson, is working on a project that could lead to the creation of a fast, green car.
Engineers at his research laboratory in Wiltshire are developing a powerful lightweight motor that could enable electric cars to zoom along for hundreds of miles without causing pollution. Solar panels on their roofs or in garages would charge them with renewable energy.
In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, the scientist forecast that electric cars would be “the future” of transport, and predicted they could outnumber petrol vehicles in as little as 10 years’ time.
“They’re quiet and they’re pollution free,” enthused Sir James, whose bagless vacuum cleaner cemented his reputation as an innovative risk-taker and earned him an estimated £700m fortune.
The 61-year-old inventor also expressed his belief that the cars could overcome their current drawbacks – their short range and slow speed. “An electric car doesn’t go far enough. It could do. Electric motors can do that,” he said, adding that there were “fantastic opportunities” to make electric vehicles lighter.
“At the moment, electric cars are seen as city cars and to go 30mph is quite enough, but in the future that will change. An electric motor can go to very high speeds.”
The Th!nk electric car, coming to the UK next year.
At present, electric cars are powered by a motor charged from a normal socket connected to the national grid. “Most of the time a car isn’t being used,” said Sir James, “so a photo voltaic [solar] charge over a long period of time is an absolutely suitable way of charging a car.”
Although probably several years off, the prospect of a Dyson car was welcomed by green groups, who believe climate change and diminishing oil resources will force drivers to wean themselves off fossil fuel in the near future.
Petrol has jumped in price by 22 per cent to £1.18 a litre in a year, pushing the cost of filling a saloon car to £70. By contrast, Britain’s best-selling electric car, the G-Wiz, costs only 1p a mile to run – and is exempt from road tax, many parking fees and the London congestion charge.
Carmakers are pouring millions of pounds into developing electric and hybrid cars, believing a long-term shift towards sustainable transport is taking place. Sales of gas-guzzling 4×4s and luxury marques fell in the UK in May.
Last week, General Motors announced plans to sell the “plug in and go” Chevy Volt by 2010. BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Honda plan rivals.
As one of Britain’s best-known businessmen, Sir James employs a research team of 400 at a modern glass HQ in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and manufactures his products in Malaysia.
Sir James said he was “excited” by his firm’s extra-strong digital motors, which are half the weight of normal motors. With the aid of a microchip, his patented Dyson Digital Motor (DDM) turns 10,000 times a minute – five times faster than that of a Formula One car. He has put the motor into two vacuum cleaners and in the Airblade, the speedy hand-drier he launched two years ago. He believes the DDM – and its successors – could have far greater applications, notably in the electric car.
Sources said Sir James would probably want to team up with existing carmakers to develop a new electric vehicle rather than try to make one from scratch.
The environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth welcomed the involvement of Sir James, who has injected colour, fun and style into industrial design.
“Electric cars that run on electricity generated by renewable energy produce zero carbon emissions,” said transport campaigner Richard Dyer. “These cars will be crucial to reducing transport’s impact on climate change and should be introduced widely as soon as possible.”
Steve Fowler, editor of What Car, was more cautious. “Dyson certainly has a history of producing innovative electrical products,” he said, “but there’s a fair difference between producing electric motors for vacuum cleaners or washing machines and cars.”
Mr Fowler added that Sir James would have more success if the finished product bore the stamp of his “trademark innovation and design”: “The last time a home electricals manufacturer got involved with vehicle manufacture was when Hoover manufactured the Sinclair C5 electric tricycle in 1985.”
Source: The Independent website
The consequences of drink driving could last much longer than your hangover and blight the rest of your life warn Cambridgeshire County Council road safety chiefs.
The summer weather often increases the opportunities for people to be out enjoying themselves - and for unplanned drinking.
However, many people ignore the fatal consequences of their actions and may not know that a drink driving conviction will remain on your licence for 11 years.
A new THINK! campaign has been launched for the summer to remind drivers that drink driving can have serious long lasting consequences.
It is well known that drink drivers put themselves and others in serious and potentially fatal danger.
But people don’t always realise that getting behind the wheel after drinking can devastate your life even when a crash is avoided, far beyond the 12-month driving ban and hugely affecting both current and future job prospects.
Those that have had a drink should not drive home but plan their journeys safely, for example by using public transport or taking a taxi instead.
Head of Road Safety Services for Cambridgeshire County Council, David Frost said: “In 2007, there were 1,555 drink drive arrests through breath test failures in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. While this represents encouragingly lower figures than the previous two years, it unfortunately remains clear that a significant number of selfish drivers ignore the persistent warnings over the dangers of drink driving.
“The consequences can sadly be fatal, and failing that be hugely life
affecting with the conviction so long lasting on your licence.
“How much alcohol you can drink before you reach the legal limit depends on the individual and factors such as if you have had a meal with their drink. It means it is very hard to judge how much you can legally drink before driving, which is why the only safe limit is none at all.”
Source: Town Crier Today website
Improving the design of roads could cut deaths and serious injuries in traffic accidents by a third, a newly launched campaign group argues.
Improvements in car safety have helped to cut the number of deaths
The Campaign for Safe Road Design says improving signs, lines and kerbs could see 10,000 fewer fatalities and serious injuries over the next 10 years.
The group says as a result, the UK could save £6bn a year.
The government said road safety had improved dramatically in recent years, but pledged to work with the group.
Picture from Campaign for Safe Road Design website
The group, which comprises road users as well as road safety and road design bodies, says in the last 10 years, 375,000 people have been killed or seriously injured in road crashes.
It calculated that as a consequence, the UK has lost 1.5% of its gross domestic product every year - more than the total spent on primary schools and twice the spending on GPs.
The campaign’s chairman John Dawson said: “A safe road system means road users who obey traffic law, manufacturers who provide safe vehicles and authorities who provide safe roads.
“As the government prepares its road safety strategy beyond 2010, we must now, as other leading countries have done, turn our attention to the safety features built into our roads.”
‘Determined’
The campaigners are particularly calling for safer road design on roads outside major towns, where two-thirds of road deaths occur.
A Department for Transport spokesman said that road safety in the UK had improved “dramatically” in recent years - with road deaths in 2007 falling below 3,000 for the first time since records began in 1926.
He said the fall was due to a combination of investment in roads, improvements to vehicle safety, education and enforcement.
He added: “We are, of course, determined to do more and we will work with the campaign to investigate how further road improvements could help make our roads even safer.”
Source: The BBC website
A WOMAN has finally passed her driving test 27 years and 450 lessons after she first took to the road.
Teresa Clarke, a 62-year-old grandmother and mother-of-two, had her first lesson in 1981 shortly before American president Ronald Reagan was shot and Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer.
Since then she has been through 20 driving instructors, spent £15,000 in fees and had 450 hours of tuition. Despite all the work she failed 12 tests, cancelled a further 35 and had 50 mock exams.
But it was 13th time lucky when thanks to the help of her stepson, who runs a driving school, she finally was allowed to ditch her L-plates last month.
“It took a long time for it to sink in when I was told I had passed,” said Mrs Clarke, of Wroxham, Norfolk. “I was so happy I kissed the woman instructor.”
Mrs Clarke, a former shop assistant who is 5ft tall and has to sit on a cushion to reach the steering wheel, admits that she was a hopeless learner because she found it very difficult to concentrate for long periods of time.
She was such a disaster that many instructors refused to carry on teaching her after a few lessons - either too scared or too frustrated to continue.
Her last unsuccessful driving instructor was so fed up he told her to give up because she would never pass her test.
But then Richard Minkler, her stepson from her first marriage, stepped in and offered her his best instructor. It proved an inspired move and finally after some firm words Mrs Clarke, who has two grandchildren, finally passed her test - albeit in an automatic car.
She was given 56 hours instruction in a two week intensive course and told to give up coffee and tea to aid her concentration.
She said: “I was little upset after I failed my first couple of tests - but I never really got disheartened.
“I was very persistent and I always knew I would pass one day. Now my dream has come true and I am just delighted.
“I used to fail my tests on all sorts of different things although my main problem was my lack of concentration.
“I used to have at least three cups of strong Italian coffee every day and when I stopped it really improved my driving by helping me to concentrate.”
“My previous one three years ago ended up refusing to teach me anymore after I failed my test with him.
“He just said, ‘I am awfully sorry, but you are no good. You will never pass’. His comments upset me and I am delighted to have proved him wrong.”
Mrs Clarke’s husband Richard, 61, a training centre administrator said he was “relieved” that she had finally passed.
He added: “There’s been so many times that Teresa has been close to passing. There has been a certain tension involved in this.”
Her instructor, Patrick Beasley, said he had to be “very firm” with his extraordinary student because of her “poor concentration”.
But he said he was delighted when she passed. “She went absolutely bananas,” he said. “I had to calm her down and the examiner was quite worried about her.”
Source: The Telegraph website, 09/07/08
GRIDLOCK on Cambridge roads is hitting the city’s businesses in the pocket.
Motorists have been slowed to a crawl by road works in and around the city, with the respite of the school holidays still weeks away.
The Hills Road bridge is currently down to a single lane during off-peak hours while a guided bus underpass is constructed - leaving jams stretching as far back as Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
Works are being carried out on Horningsea Road and in Cottenham, while resurfacing and the construction of a new park and ride site on the A10 has also caused delays.
The city’s driving instructors are among the worst hit, and other businesses are feeling the pinch too - while there are fears shoppers might shun Cambridge because of tailbacks.
Lola Craft, chair of the Cambridge Association of Approved Driving Instructors (CAADI), said her members were taking a pay cut or working longer hours.
Ms Craft said: “It’s impossible to get anywhere with all these main arterial roads out of Cambridge blocked.
“It means people are paying for me to sit in traffic with them and I can’t make them do that.”
Ms Craft said she had been forced to turn down enquiries from Waterbeach and from students at Hills Road College because of the traffic problems.
She said: “Why are they doing all these works at the same time? It just shows a lack of planning. Some of us are wondering how much more we can take.”
John Bridge, chairman of Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce, said: “It’s difficult for companies trying to deliver or pick goods up, and people are losing money because they have to put aside more time to get places. There hasn’t been enough coordination or communication, and it’s causing a lot of frustration.”
Sid Couzens, chairman of the Cambridge Licenced Taxi Owners’ Association, said: “Our takings have gone down because if you’re sitting in traffic you’re not earning as much as you should. And it costs customers more to get places as well.”
A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman said: “Road works tend to happen when the weather is better because that’s when you get more done, and you get lighter traffic towards the school holidays as well.
“They are planned to be some distance from each other and we put details of all works on our website.”
Source: Cambridgeshire News website, by Chris Havergal
Road deaths fell below 3,000 last year for the first time since records began in 1926.
Pedestrian deaths fell by 5 per cent - but injuries among cyclists and motorcyclist fatalities were on the rise.
Motoring groups said that better car safety technology and greater compliance with the speed limit were the two key factors behind the fall in deaths.
The greatest improvement was in the number of child deaths, which fell by 28 per cent compared with 2006.
The road network is now eight times safer per mile travelled than it was in 1966, when deaths reached a postwar peak of 7,985. There were 2,943 deaths last year, seven per cent fewer than in 2006. The number killed was down for every category of road user except for goods vehicle drivers.
Road deaths had fluctuated between 3,200 and 3,600 since 1994 and last year’s total appears to mark a significant shift towards safer driving.
Last year was the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the EuroNCAP crash-test rating system. The average car in 1997 gained between two and three stars, compared with four or five stars in 2007, owing to the almost universal introduction in new cars of ABS brakes and multiple airbags.
The proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit on residential roads has fallen sharply in the past decade, down from almost three quarters in 1996 to only half in 2006.
The overall improvement masked some poor performances, with deaths rising sharply in Hampshire, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Lincolnshire and Wiltshire. There was little improvement in safety on rural roads. A total of 121 children under 16 died on the roads last year, down from 169 in 2006 and less than half the number killed each year during the mid1990s.
The death rate for car occupants fell twice as fast as for pedestrians and cyclists. There were 1,431 deaths in cars - 11 per cent down on 2006. The number of pedestrians killed fell by 5 per cent to 644 and the number of cyclists by 7 per cent to 146. However, serious injuries among cyclists rose for the third successive year to 2,428. This was partly because of the doubling since 2000 of cycling in London, where there has been a steep rise in low-speed collisions.
There were 588 motorcyclists killed last year, a fall of only 2 per cent on 2006. Motorcycle deaths have been on an upward trend in the last decade from a low of 440 in 1996.
Edmund King, president of the AA, said speed cameras were partly responsible for the reduction in deaths because they had prompted many drivers to pay much closer attention to the limits. Speeding offences reached a peak of 2.1 million in 2005 and fell by 150,000 the following year, the steepest reduction since the introduction of cameras in 1992.
Mr King said: “Drivers are now much more tuned into the fact that speeding can kill and that it isn’t just a bit of fun. The focus on speeding has changed the mentality of drivers and you now see pedestrians waving at cars to slow down.”
He said the crash-test system meant car manufacturers were under intense competitive pressure to produce safer designs. In 1997 the Rover 100 achieved half a star in the first set of crash tests and was withdrawn within six months. The new Renault Clio, a similar-sized car, has five stars. Robert Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (Pacts), said that road humps and other engineering measures had made residential roads much safer in the past decade, during which pedestrian deaths fell by more than a third from 1,000 a year.
However, the fall in child deaths was partly the result of greater restrictions on children’s movements outdoors, with parents less likely to allow them to walk or cycle on their own. The drop in the number of cyclists killed was entirely down to a halving in the number of child victims. Adult cyclist deaths increased by 6 per cent from 115 to 122.
Kevin Clinton, the head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “It is worrying to see increases in deaths among adult cyclists and in serious injuries among child cyclists. This shows the need for the new investment of £140 million announced earlier this year to make the roads safer for cyclists and for cyclist training.” Jim Fitzpatrick, the Road Safety Minister, said: “Far too many people are still dying and we will continue to do everything we can to improve road safety and further reduce the numbers of people killed or injured.”
The Government is considering creating a specific target to reduce road deaths below a certain number. Its current target, to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 40 per cent by 2010 compared with the average for 1994-98, has been criticised because interpretations vary on what constitutes a serious injury.
The target is likely to be met (it was down by 36 per cent by 2007), but only because reported serious injuries are falling much faster than deaths.
Pacts has urged the Government to set a target to cut deaths to below 1,000 by 2030 - based on the idea that using the roads should be no more than twice as dangerous as everyday activities such as DIY. At present road travel is 8.5 times as dangerous.
Neil Greig, director of the IAM Motoring Trust, said: “There is no place for complacency in road safety.
“The challenge now is to drive down these figures even further by targeting known high risks such as rural single carriageways, young drivers and those who drive for work.”
Source: The Times Online website, by
The speed limit on thousands of residential roads will be reduced to 20mph under government moves designed to cut road deaths by a third over the next decade.
Variable limits will be introduced on main roads near schools, with digital signs ordering drivers to cut their speed to 20mph or less when pupils are arriving or departing.
Cameras that detect a vehicle’s average speed will be used instead of road humps to enforce the limit in some of the new 20mph zones.
More than 3,000 people die on the roads each year, including motorists, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians. The target, to be reached by 2020, is expected to be set at about 2,000 deaths.
The Government is preparing a road safety strategy for the next decade and will publish proposals in a consultation document this year. Unlike previous strategies, it is expected to include a specific target to reduce road deaths and a series of tough measures.
In addition to more 20mph zones, measures are likely to include a lower drink-drive limit, six penalty points for serious breaches of the speed limit and harsher penalties for not wearing seatbelts.
Jim Fitzpatrick, the Road Safety Minister, told The Times that the Government would consider setting a challenging target for cutting road deaths. “We get some criticism for not being ambitious enough,” he said, conceding that measuring deaths alone, rather than together with serious injuries, would provide absolute clarity.
One of the main ways of achieving the target, he said, would be to reduce the speed of traffic on residential roads.
Research from the Department for Transport indicates that 1 in 40 pedestrians struck by a car at 20mph dies, compared with 1 in 5 at 30mph. At 40mph the survival rate falls to 10 per cent. A 1mph cut in average vehicle speed reduces crash frequency by about 5 per cent.
The Government’s existing road safety target — to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 40 per cent between 1998 and 2010 — has been criticised for being too weak. The target will probably be met, but only because the number of serious injuries recorded by police has fallen sharply.
By 2006, serious injuries were down by 35 per cent but deaths had fallen by only 11 per cent. Hospital admission figures show that serious injuries from road crashes have hardly changed since 1996. This may indicate that the fall in numbers of traffic police since 1990 is resulting in fewer serious injuries being recorded.
Mr Fitzpatrick said: “We could reduce crashes still further, with the help of more 20mph zones, especially in residential neighbourhoods and other areas where there are vulnerable road users.” He said that he wanted to reinforce guidance to local authorities that encouraged them to create 20mph zones.
The minister quoted a Transport Research Laboratory study of 250 20mph schemes across Britain, which found that, after the limit was reduced, crashes fell by 60 per cent, child casualties by 67 per cent and average speeds by 9mph.
He said that his department was conducting a further study of the benefits of 20mph zones to persuade local authorities to introduce them more quickly.
The DfT was also working with several authorities to develop cheaper speed-limit signs to reduce the cost of converting a road to 20mph.
Mr Fitzpatrick pointed to Sweden’s “Vision Zero” road safety strategy, which rejects the idea that some road deaths are inevitable and an acceptable price to pay for the benefits of personal mobility. “We used to be top of the world league on road safety but now we are fourth or fifth.
We want to get back to the top,” he said.
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety urged the Government to adopt a target for 2020 of no more than 2,000 road deaths a year, down from 3,172 in 2006.
Rob Gifford, the council’s director, said that the Government should also set a longer-term target to cut to deaths to below 1,000 by 2030. This number is based on the idea that using the road network should be no more than twice as dangerous as everyday activities such as DIY. At present, road travel is 8.5 times as dangerous.
The Home Office is expected to approve an average speed camera system for 20mph zones by the end of the year. The system works by having a camera at every entry and exit point to catch all drivers exceeding the limit on any route through the zone.
Source: The Times Online website, by
The largest road safety research project ever launched in Europe will usher in a series of powerful road-safety systems for European cars.
But, in the long term, its basic, experimental research could lead to a car that is virtually uncrashable.
A truck exits suddenly from a side road, directly into your lane only dozens of metres ahead. Suddenly, your car issues a warning, starts applying the brakes and attempts to take evasive action. Realising impact is unavoidable; in-car safety systems pre-tension the safety belts and arm the airbag, timing its release to the second before impact.
Such is the promise of the uncrashable car, coming to a dealer near you in the perhaps not-too-distant future. The system is part of the basic research undertaken by the largest research initiative into road safety ever undertaken in Europe.
PReVENT has a budget of over €50 million and 56 partners pursuing a broad, but highly complementary programme of research. A dozen sub-projects focus on specific road-safety issues, but all projects support and feed into each other in some way.
PReVENT is studying relatively cheap, even simple, technologies – such as parking sensors and existing satellite navigation – that can be retooled to enhance driver safety. But as part of its broad and deep approach to car safety, it is also diving into more experimental and medium- to long-term systems, innovations that could appear in five-to-ten years.
The uncrashable car is a theoretical construct that concerned a handful of PReVENT’s sub-projects. But it could become far more of a reality than anyone expected.
Of course, it is impossible to stop all car collisions, but the technology could be pushed to make it increasingly unlikely and mitigate crashes when they do occur.
For example, PReVENT project WILLWARN uses wireless communication with other vehicles to alert the driver about potentially dangerous situations ahead, while MAPS&ADAS reads sat-nav maps to track approaching hazards, like bends, dips or intersections. SASPENCE looks at safe driving distances and speed, while LATERALSAFE finally brings active sensing to the blind spot.
All have their role in the uncrashable car, as do many others within the broader project. But two projects, APALACI and COMPOSE, take this a step further, actively tracking the speed and trajectories of surrounding vehicles and other road users in real time. If one vehicle suddenly stops, or a pedestrian suddenly steps onto the road, they swing into action to rapidly calculate the implications.
Predictive collision detection
APALACI is an advanced pre-crash mitigation system built round the registration of other motorists and cyclists. In the APALACI system, sensors monitor the street or road immediately around the vehicle and collect as much information about a collision as possible, before it even starts to take place.
The system uses this data to decide on the ideal safety reaction strategy. Examples include controlled braking manoeuvres, controlled activation of the occupant restraint systems or pre-arming airbag systems. The car can react far faster than the driver, cutting speed by crucial amounts to ensure unavoidable accidents are less severe.
APALACI also developed a so-called ‘Start Inhibit System’ for trucks. It surveys the blind spot immediately in front of a truck and protects pedestrians or cyclists by preventing dangerous manoeuvres.
APALACI was tested in a series of vehicles like the Fiat Stilo, the Volvo FH12 truck, the Alfa Romeo 156 and Mercedes E350. It used laser sensors, radar, software decision assistance and a variety of other technologies to achieve the goal.
Tiny changes have a huge impact
COMPOSE, on the other hand, aims more specifically to keep others, as well as its driver, safe. It can apply the brakes if a pedestrian steps onto the road, or extend the bumper, and raise the bonnet to enhance occupant protection.
Tiny differences have a huge impact on car safety. Dropping speed by 1km/h can reduce accidents with injury by 3 per cent, while braking fractions of a second sooner is enough to reduce the damage caused dramatically.
The systems were tested in the BMW 545i and the Volvo FH12 truck, and they do appreciably enhance safety. But, for all their potential, these systems remain, for now, the preserve of the future.
“The teams developed sophisticated algorithms to track all these elements in the landscape,” explains Matthias Schulze, coordinator of the EU-funded PReVENT project and Senior Manager for ITS & Services at Daimler AG. “But they require enormous computer power to keep track of all the various elements, so this work is aimed at basic research, establishing how it could be done. It will be a while before in-car computers are sophisticated enough to use these systems.”
Nonetheless, they do provide tools that automakers can use to mitigate the potential for accidents, and they provide a clear research roadmap for the uncrashable car of the future.
Source: Science Daily website 14/04/08
Comments please from driving instructors and driving schools who are members of BADDIA (Bedford and District Driving Instructors Association) giving driving lessons, Pass Plus, automatic lessons, refresher courses, motorway lessons in the Bedford area to learner drivers preparing for the driving test and other drivers.
Q. What is the only car designed to crash?
A. A bumper car!
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