Danger of traction loss and autonomous driving
If cars are soon due to be on the way on our streets without a driver, the vehicle must be able to travel from A to B independently, despite pouring rain or black ice on the road. This is made possible by an assistance system, capable to predict the imminent change on the road surface and integrated into the vehicle control system. The vehicle will be able to automatically react to such changes and to avoid the risk. The security for all traffic participants can be further increased by connecting the assistance systems with each other. Using maps with information on the road conditions, other vehicles could be warned about risky situations early on, and their velocity could also be adapted accordingly.
Functionality and costs
The danger detection of the system is based on interpretation of the optical characteristics of water and ice, which makes the system more reliable and secure than the methods used so far. Data collected by near-infrared and polarization sensors, together with AI-assisted data analysis, enable unambiguous detection and localization of hazardous road surfaces caused by weather. Use of commercially available optical CMOS-sensors combined with optical filters keeps the system mechanically simple and cost effective.