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The new Accord that can drive itself. We can have K.I.T.T in our Honda's!
Well.... Not quite
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Well.... Not quite
4Car FeatureLike most of us, I wasn't born when Isaac Asimov wrote the sci-fi anthology, I, Robot. 'Man-like Machines Rule the World' shouts the cover of the original 1940 edition - a book that contains the very first reference to the term 'robotics'. Asimov even came up with three 'laws' to guide the behaviour of the intelligent machines that populated his fictional future.
Sixty five years on, in a large industrial complex in Slough, I'm looking at a list of three 'rules' that bear more than a passing resemblance to Asimov's. One: that the system must give priority to the driver so that they might ultimately remain in control. Two: that the operation of the system must be transparent to the driver. And three: that the system must not promote negligence in the driver, thereby endangering their life. The words may be subtly different, but the basic message is the same. "It's okay," it says, "the machine might be smarter than you. But you're the one pressing the buttons."
The machine I'm here to assess is the Advanced Driver Assist System, or ADAS. At least that's what it's called until its inventor, Honda, can think of something better. In essence, it's a combination of the firm's Adaptive Cruise Control set-up (ACC) and a gadget called Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS). Neither concept is new to the market. Adaptive cruise control can be specified on Mercedes' S-Class and Audi's A8, to name but two. And Citroen has been fitting a piece of kit called a 'Lane-Departure Warning' system to its C4 and C5 family cars since last year. Old news, then?
Not quite. Where Honda's LKAS differs from other similar devices is that it's actually capable of driving you out of trouble. Drift out of your lane in a C4 and your buttocks get buzzed. Do the same in a next-generation Accord and the car will steer you back on to the straight and narrow. All the while, the cruise control system will do everything necessary - even apply the brakes - to keep you a set distance from the car in front. This is 21st century driving, I Robot-style.
Don't get too excited, says Honda. This isn't a driverless car - merely a form of passive safety that's designed to share the workload a little. And it's right. We're still some way off removing humans from the driving equation completely. But it's a significant step in that direction.
The '06 Accord is still being kept under wraps for another few weeks. But Honda invited us to come and try out the system in one of its current-shape development cars. Given that the next one is little more than a facelift, it's as good as the real thing. The hardware is identical.
Let's quickly run through it. There's a millimetre-wave radar transmitter mounted behind the big 'H' corporate logo in the front grille. The unit also houses the receptor. So when the radar wave bounces off the car ahead and back into the array, a computer uses the amount of time it took to do so (combined with the yaw rate and speed of the car) to calculate how many seconds in front it is. Maybe Schumacher should have a word with Jean Todt - might be useful on his Ferrari F1 car...
This ability to factor in vehicle yaw - i.e. the amount of horizontal g-force generated during a turn - is vital to the ACC's success as a form of cruise control. With some other systems I've tried, the radar has a nasty habit of getting confused. If the road curves, they'll often pick up a car travelling at a lower speed in the middle lane when you're driving in the inside one. Unless the road is empty, it's a pain in the ass.
When a slow-moving car did suddenly cut into my lane (forced, as usual, by a truck changing lane without warning), the ACC reacted rapidly and decisively. It won't go as far as slamming on the anchors to avoid an accident, but it will apply some braking force and emit a loud beep/flashing light to prompt you to take action. Besides, Honda is about to launch a gadget designed to do exactly that in its forthcoming Legend model.
Clever as the cruise control system is, it plays second fiddle to the lane keep assist in terms of wow factor. A C-MOS camera (identical to the one in your mobile phone - a big factor in their relative affordability) is mounted at the top of the windscreen, just above the internal rear-view mirror. This scans the road ahead in a 40-degree radius, picking up the dotted white lines used to divide lane boundaries on motorways and dual carriageways. The computer recognises that you're locked into a particular lane, monitors its angle of curvature and uses factors such as yaw and vehicle speed to calculate what steering input is required.
The steering system is fully electric, identical in design to that found on the Accord 2.0 Economy model. So all the LKAS need do is piggyback the electric motor that already provides the steering assistance and tell it to apply torque in a particular direction. To all intents and purposes, it steers itself. But this is where rule number three, the one about promoting negligence in the driver, comes in.
The car will only provide 80 per cent of the steering torque needed to keep the car in lane - the remaining 20 per cent has to be supplied by you. This is Honda's get-out-of-jail-free card. If LKAS detects that your hands aren't on the wheel, or are simply resting there, it will emit a couple of warning beeps - verbal slaps on the wrist - while continuing to steer. Then, after a period of 6 to 15 seconds, it'll disengage completely.
The system is limited to turns of up to 0.2g, or a minimum radius of 230 metres. Which means it's fine on most motorways and some of the more gentle slip roads. But if the curve is too great, or there aren't two sets of white lines for it to pick up, you're on your own. It only operates between 45mph and 112mph, too.
As I discovered, however, if the road is straight you can pretty much relax and let the car steer for you. It's more than capable of making small corrections to counter the effects of camber and bumpy surfaces. Eventually, it will cotton on to your laziness. But this can take up to 30 seconds.
When it does deactivate, all you need do is apply a hint of steering lock and it immediately comes back into play. That's the beauty of this set-up - it really wants to help you out. It's also very simple to use.
Press a button on the steering wheel and both systems power up. Then, when you're up to speed and in your chosen lane, simply press the individual LKAS and ACC pads behind the wheel. A hollow outline of a car between two hollow sets of lanes appears on the dash. When the car becomes solid, the cruise control system has locked on a car ahead. And when the lines fill, the lane keep assist is in play. It'll only do so once you've been driving in the middle of the lane for three seconds, though, and goes into standby mode when the indicators are being used.
Does ADAS really make your life any easier? To an extent, definitely. After just an hour behind the wheel, I found myself relaxing and learning to trust it. You don't worry so much about the positioning of your car within the lane, which allows you to focus on other things. Like signs of erratic driving from the car half a mile ahead, or mobile speed traps.
This is the real benefit. Not the decreased physical effort - a regular Accord's controls aren't exactly what you'd call demanding. But rather the ability to relax, to look around you more, to take in the 'big picture'. It makes you a safer driver.
Honda plans only to offer the system on automatic-equipped 2.4 Executive models, at a ballpark price of around £1,000. And the only other manufacturer offering such a system is Mercedes, on its forthcoming S-Class. So you'll have to be pretty high up the company food chain to find this on your shopping list.
Nevertheless, it won't be long before technology like this becomes as common a feature as regular cruise control is now. And from there it's just a hop, skip and a jump to the world's first driverless car. A senior Honda technician told me we're looking at 10, maybe 15 years, tops. Then Asimov's machines will really rule the world - or the roads at least.
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Still, interesting article! 👍 The buzzing seat idea is interesting - but could have the unforeseen side-effect of gf's the world over constantly drifting in and out of lanes 
