The innovations transforming our driving world
Inside the 2030 Audi Premium cars sell on dynamics and performance, but how will they compete in the autonomous future? With a premium on-board experience, says Nick Gibbs
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ROBO FLIGHT ATTENDANTS Premium makers like BMW want to bring us business class on wheels. Flight attendants could be partially physical, serving drivers with fresh coffee via a robot arm. Audi’s version is virtual: accessing your phone to understand you better and tailor suggestions, such as where best to eat en route.
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VIRTUAL REALITY GAMING BMW’s premium content plan includes VR games that incorporate the movement of the car and the view ahead. Blast robotaxis, decorate carriageways, weaponise bicycles or switch to Venice water-taxi mode. BMW is working on ways to cure that queasiness associated with virtual reality (and car travel as a whole for some poor souls).
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CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK | February 2018
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THE WHEEL COMES OFF Jaguar’s Future-Type concept shows a future where the steering wheel becomes integral to your life. It detaches from the car to operate like an Amazon Echo, responding to voice commands to play music or order shopping. And if you’re going somewhere, plug it into compatible hire cars to drive fun stretches of road.
EOPLE WHO LOVE driving may well feel despondent about the post-2030 landscape, when cars should be able to drive themselves. That brave new world creates an existential crisis for the likes of BMW, Jaguar and Audi, too: the performance and dynamic ethos that built those brands will recede when Level 5 autonomy means owners won’t have to turn the steering or feel throttle response. ‘You could paint a very bleak future where cars all become like little white fridges or portable toilets,’ says Jaguar’s head of advanced design, Julian Thomson. But he insists: ‘This is NOT what we’re about!’ Firstly, the premium brands are refusing to give up on the notion that humans will want to drive themselves. ‘There will definitely be a steering wheel in future BMWs, for when you want sheer driving pleasure,’ says BMW marketing chief Ian Robertson. ‘That’s fundamental to our thinking.’ Jaguar Advanced Design has created an autonomous concept called Future-Type, whose centrepiece is its removable steering wheel. Away from a car it’s an internet-connected, voice-controlled assistant like Amazon’s Alexa, but get into your Jag – or an app-hailed autonomous car – 4 and plug it in to drive. You might think trackdays will be the last ODEON WITH AN ENGINE bastion for die-hard drivers, but VW sees a The autonomous dream: use for autonomy there too. The group has lounging in the world’s comfiest promised to produce an autonomous seats to watch the latest cinema sports car: its tech already exists in a Golf. release before snoozing to your destination. Audi reckons the whole This car has a race-trainer function which windscreen could be used to play drives the ‘perfect line’ on a track, accordmovies. Autonomous driving is ing to Ulrich Eichhorn, VW Group’s resmooth enough and smart enough to remove the search head. Sighting lap over, the drivers need for seatbelts. then follow the autonomous ‘ghost’ car on a head-up display until they improve. ‘I usually manage to be quicker but not always!’ Eichhorn says. Most of the time autonomous cars will be self-commuting and for that the premiums are betting we’ll pay for superior comfort and service. Think airline business-class, proffers Markus Seidel, BMW’s head of advanced research. ‘The airplane takes off, then a flight attendant comes round. This is going to happen in a car also,’ he argues. This being the future, that attendant is part virtual but also part physical: an in-built coffee maker might offer a cup via a robot arm, rather than manufacturers plumb in a Nespresso machine. Autonomous cars could be a huge money spinner for car makers, but Seidel doesn’t believe car occupants will mass-migrate to manufacturer-proffered services via the touchscreen: ‘It will be very hard to get people off their phones,’ he reckons. BMW is, however, researching how to offer virtual reality games that incorporate the movement of the car, providing it can stop us feeling queasy. Audi is also focusing on the flight-attendant idea by promising a virtual assistant, PIA, who’ll interrogate your phone and offer to book restaurants based on your likes and journey plan. PIA was installed in the Aicon concept, a longrange autonomous electric car. This was essentially a sleek van totally focused on the comfort of two passengers in their separate, swivelling, reclining chairs. Should they tire of the view through the panoramic windscreen, they can switch it to cinema mode – or darken the glass for a snooze. Who wouldn’t fancy 40 winks or watching Star Wars Episode 14 during a traffic jam? If this premium vision comes true, the age of autonomy will offer something for even the most entrenched pessimist.
February 2018 | CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK
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Does it work? The car that won’t let you go the wrong way DID IT WORK? The system is still being
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developed, but on the Wrong-Way Inhibit reacts as soon as there is an indiT FIRST GLANCE it appears to be one of those evidence of a brief drive cation that the driver is about to enter a road in the wrong ‘I’d never be that stupid’ driving errors: trying at a test facility the direction. For example, if the driver heads for a motorway to turn into a one-street against the flow of answer’s a cautious ‘yes’. entry instead of an exit road, the system first warns with traffic or, even more disastrously, heading onto a When I took a wrong an acoustic signal, seatbelt vibration and an optical motorway via the exit ramp. turning, it stopped at signal on the dashboard. A significantly higher steering Yet, according to a US study covering 2004 to 2009, the side of the road, wheel resistance reinforces the message that the driver is an average of 360 people a year were victims of wrongheadlights on full and about to make a wrong turn. If the driver pays no heed, way driving on US highways. In Germany the number hazards flashing at the (imaginary) oncoming the system can steer the car to the edge of the lane, brake of fatalities in 2016 was 12 – with 2200 radio traffic traffic. That’s the job initially to walking speed and then stop. Furthermore, announcements of wrong-way incidents. it’s meant to do. It’s the headlights and the hazard warning lights can be The boffins at ZF have a solution. ‘With Wrong-Way alarming, but preferable activated to alert oncoming traffic. Inhibit we want to help put an end to tragic accidents to the alternative. IAN ADCOCK caused by wrong-way driving,’ says Dr Harald Naunheimer, head of research and development. The German engineering company showed off the technology in its Vision Keep your eyes on the road Zero demonstrator, a VW Touran alerts the driver with ZF’s Vision Zero test equipped with a suite of sensors and techan optical warning, an car is also fitted nologies all designed to make roads safer acoustic signal and with anti-distraction for motorists as well as pedestrians. tightening the seatbelt. tech that involves a Simultaneously, the laser-based interior How does the car know? The Vision Zero system is capable of camera with learning vehicle uses multiple approaches to detect taking over steering capability. The camera dangerous decisions: highly accurate maps and staying on track monitors the position that are constantly updated via the cloud; in bends. If the driver of the driver’s head traffic sign and road marking recognition; still fails to respond, in 3D, even in poor a front tri-camera system; and long- and the system can steadily lighting. As soon as the short-range radar. Vital to Wrong-Way reduce power and, driver looks away from Inhibit is the accuracy of the mapping and finally, if the driver the road, the system GPS location system, which knows where continues to ignore all notices – and if it the car is to within half an inch, as well as warnings, it can bring calculates that there’s the car to a halt. some danger then it real-time traffic and weather data.
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CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK | February 2018
5 things we learned riding in Jaguar’s i-Pace The all-electric i-Pace goes on sale in March. We ride in a preproduction prototype and get even more excited. By Ben Miller
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4sec 0-60mph? At least
Tesla has normalised the idea of seriously quick EVs, a product not of a deliberate quest for speed but of batteries with good range: by happy accident, they also make for scorching acceleration. Jaguar’s claiming 4sec to 60mph but if anything this top-spec, dual-motor prototype i-Pace feels faster: when the pedal goes to floor there’s no pause and no hesitation, just whine and squash-you-intoyour-seat thrust.
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The package is clever
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It feels like a Jaguar
i-Pace uses permanent-magnet motors – they’re 20-30% more expensive than induction motors but boast greater power density, as befits a performance Jaguar. What’s more, where many EV rivals use a reduction gearset, Jaguar’s concentric motors sit on the same axis as the driveshafts, saving space that can then be gifted to the spacious cabin. Tuning of the gears has optimised whine; enough for a sense of speed without being intrusive.
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It’s a slick performer
Jaguar has conducted much of the development work required of its first production EV in-house, to build expertise, to speed up the rate at which updates and refinements can be implemented and to give its engineers control over every aspect of the user experience. In the standard drive mode the level of regenerative braking is relatively modest – deliberately, to make the i-Pace feel normal to EV first-timers. ‘It’s comparable to backing off in third gear,’ explains Simon Patel, the man heading up Jaguar’s EV powertrain team. ‘Customers new to EVs won’t need to acclimatise. Then we have a B mode to give you that one-pedal EV driving style.’ Drive is split 50:50 front/rear but can be shunted one way or the other as required – a handy dynamics tool when combined with i-Pace’s torque vectoring by brake.
Jaguar’s EV powertrain guru Simon Patel, about to drop the hammer
What does that mean? Well, it means that when you twirl the wheel and take a turn at the eleventh hour the i-Pace doesn’t break into a cold sweat. Thank an ultra-rigid structure – far stiffer than any previous Jaguar – and a centre of gravity 100mm lower than that of the F-Pace.
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It’s quiet and refined
For NVH engineers EVs are both a blessing and a curse. The absence of a noisy piston engine is a godsend… except that it means every other squeak and rattle in the car becomes painfully audible. ‘Because the car’s so quiet inside, we’ve had to do a lot of work on noise reduction elsewhere,’ explains Patel. Compared with some premium production EVs, which can get squeaky under duress, the i-Pace feels solid and likeably refined. Much of the blissful isolation stems from the motors: they sit in two cradles, one within the other, meaning they’re double-isolated. The i-Pace even rides pretty well on the enormous rims so crucial to its Ian Callum-penned good looks.
i-Pace pricing is still unconfirmed but expect a minimum entry fee of £60k, rising to £85k for the dual-motor flagship
February 2018 | CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK
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TOM BLACKIE
The next big things Human-friendly in-car tech Connectivity expert Tom Blackie on how car makers and IT geeks need to learn from each other
> THE TWO industries, automotive and IT, are chalk and cheese. There’s a new phone every few months, and they have a life cycle of about two years. In the car world, they spend two years thinking about a bit of tech, two years testing, then they decide to put it in, and they want it to stay in the car for years unchanged. > IF SOMETHING crashes on a PC or mobile phone, it’s a nuisance but ‘good enough’ often passes. But in the automotive world, if you had to re-set your car twice a week there’d be an uproar. And post-Dieselgate, everyone is more aware of software and the difference a few lines of code can make. > SMALL CARS often won’t have a sat-nav fitted as standard. It’ll be on the options list but not many will tick that box because it might cost £2000 as part of a package. The device in your pocket has good maps and is up to date, whereas very few people update their car sat-nav. > OUR TECH [RealVNC’s MirrorLink] takes away the pain and the cost. If you don’t want to pay £2000 for a sat-nav that will soon be out of date, you might be happier to fit a box for £200-£300 that can potentially get any app from your phone into the car.
The compact SUV. Standard EU Test figures for comparative purposes and may not reflect real driving results. Official
fuel consumption figures for the T-Roc in mpg (litres/100km): urban 33.2 (8.5) – 46.3
> LOADS OF APPS are safe for driving, and a lot more are safe when the car is stationary, and some are safe in simplified form if they can be voice operated. All of our tech has been written with driver distraction in mind. > THIS CONCEPTUALLY simple in-car unit is an incredibly secure piece of software to put in your car. [The apps run on the phone, not in the car, but you see them on the car’s dashboard and hear the audio via the car’s speakers.] When the app is updated on your phone, the unit in the car can still handle it. The in-car unit doesn’t need updating. > WHAT ALWAYS happens eventually [when complex software is built into a car] is that the hardware runs out of memory or compatibility. > MIRRORLINK doesn’t run apps on the dashboard so doesn’t expose the car to that risk. The unit in your dashboard can be made incredibly robust and future-proof. > WHEN AUTONOMOUS driving becomes legal and acceptable there are going to be so many applications on so many screens in cars. And in taxis, buses and trains, you’ll be able to use their [bigger, built-in] screen for your movies or work. Wherever there is a screen we will be able to connect a person’s device to it. > IT WORKS the other way around too: you’ll be able to adjust the air-con from the phone while you’re in the back seat, for instance. A link with the cloud can get you access to help and information – for instance, if you’re driving a hire car in an unfamiliar place, it can remotely show you how to work the sat-nav. INTERVIEW BY COLIN OVERLAND
MirrorLink applies to cars the same thinking that lets an IT geek remotely access your computer and fix it
FRESH THINKING Who needs the Highway Code? Everybody – but too few of us read it When did you last read it? It tends to get read in a pre-test panic and then discarded along with your L-plates. And many road users have never read it, because they think it’s only for car drivers. The Centre for London think tank sums up the problem with the Code, first published in 1931 (right): ‘While it has been updated numerous times, it has not kept pace with the rapid change in London. And knowledge of the Highway Code is limited, with fewer young people driving and many professional drivers coming from other nations, all with subtle differences in their national highway rules.’ And their solution? In Street Smarts (find it at centreforlondon.org), which is full of ideas for improving an overloaded city in which the Congestion Charge has stopped working and cycle use has skyrocketed, they suggest a London Movement
Code, modelled on the Code de la Rue found in France and Belgium, which emphasises the duty of care from one road user to another. It would ‘set down clear principles and rules for all street users, including those who currently do not require formal training, and encourage greater civility in the interaction between different street user groups.’
(6.1); extra urban 48.7 (5.8) – 62.8 (4.5); combined 41.5 (6.8) – 55.4 (5.1). Combined CO2 emissions 117–155g/km. Information correct at time of print.