The same soundproofing that help make railcar subdued on the inside also obscure sounds from the outside that could help driver spot potential risk . To remedy that , Ford is testing a new scheme in Europe that pairsautomatic hazard detections with in - auto sound effectsso drivers are aware of jeopardy before they actually see them .
Now that sensing element like radio detection and ranging and photographic camera with thinking object sleuthing are small-scale enough to be hidden all over vehicle , many railway car include hazard spotting and monition system where dashboard light and generic sound result alert drivers to passing vehicle , footer , and bicyclist . But most of the time those warnings are vague , cause a driver to have to right away stop all their mirror and blind spots to define exactly where the fortune outside their vehicle may be .
Engineers at Ford in Europe want to take this safety feature one stride further . They ’re now testing something they call Directional Audio Alert which adds two important pieces of selective information . First , the system determines where the hazard actually is in relation to the vehicle , and audio alerts are then routed to a specific speaker so that where the driver hears it come from show where the hazard actually is . Unless you ’re spending half a million dollar mark on a play railway car where every snow leopard of system of weights reduction is all important to its operation , even a loud sedan has speakers for the stereo place all the way around the vehicle ’s interior , allowing the sounds to be give some directionality .
Gif:YouTube - Ford News Europe
secondly , instead of a generic chime , the vehicle ’s sensors and cameras would intelligently determine what the hazard is , and play an appropriate sound impression , like the honk of a railroad car horn , the bell of a bicycle ’s bell , or the sound of footstep . In tests involving a drive simulator , drivers were capable to at once identify the type and location of a hazard 74 percent of the clock time . The locomotive engineer desire to improve the efficacy of Directional Audio Alerts even further through the use of spacial sound tricks that help better set the alert sounds in 3D space . Not only would a equipment driver know that a wheel was rive up alongside the correct side of their fomite , but the 3D sounds would also help let them know how rapidly the cyclist was ride by , thus countenance them to react consequently before ever actually seeing them .
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