So, I’m going to be a voice of reason here, also working for a a major US automaker: there’s a 0.0001% chance this would ever be a thing implemented, and is almost definitely just something someone brainstormed and threw in the patent/IP registration system for a nice bonus. We’re heavily encouraged to submit ideas, even if there’s no real plans to ever implement them, and you can make more than $2k for a couple day’s worth of work in some cases.
I’ve come up with some hilariously dystopian ideas, and I’m more than happy to submit them because I know we’ll never bother with implementing them, it keeps other more “ambitious” OEMs from doing it, and the aforementioned monetary bonuses. Just because something is patented, doesn’t mean it’s going into production next week.
Also, because I know what sub I’m in, before everyone crucifies me here because I work for an automaker, I do so because I want to make a change from the inside, and my job focus is primarily on making vehicles safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Serious question, how much does the IIHS tests affect your job?
A lot of the tests I’ve seen are 1-3 mph from making no contact and mitigating the whole incident when it comes to parallel/perpendicular tests for pedestrian systems.
Does anything other than a acceptable or good rating send you back to the drawing board?
Not really back to the drawing board, but more than likely recalibrating the system to improve performance. EU-NCAP
/CN-NCAP are a much bigger deal, at least for vehicles that are sold in the EU/CN market, and poor performance on those can mean pushing for larger changes. But even then, they’re seldom “back to the drawing board” just because at that point it’s usually way too late in production to make significant changes.
In the US, the new FMVSS 127 requirements are a huge fucking deal, and are making huge waves in the industry right now. Because they’re regulatory, meaning if you don’t pass you can’t sell the vehicle in the US, they’ve taken what’s been a generally low priority in the US to basically priority #1, especially given how tough the requirements are.
We are quite literally going to have to rework basically every single vehicle model we sell to meet it, some of them quite significantly, so it’s a much bigger deal than stuff like the IIHS requirements.
Gotcha. I figured AEB was pretty much getting to the point of being standard. Didn’t know it was decreed at this point.
I guess I was thinking more if third party targets were missed if it was possible to recalibrate or if new hardware was needed. In my experience, VW specifically, they used different radar units just about every year. And my Mazda is very different in comparison.
I welcome standard AEB. Maybe people will stop totaling my cars.
It’s definitely possible to recal or replace the hardware, it’s just way easier to recal that replace hardware.
One example I can think of is one project whose calibration and braking performance meant it was just eking out a pass, but because of the transition to copper-free brake pads, was now hitting the target. It wasn’t a huge deal, and we had to recalibrate it to brake a bit earlier.
VW (and Mercedes) is a pretty special case in terms of their industry pull. When I worked at a German Tier 1, it was very much a case of if they say “jump” you asked, “how high?”. They have such a massive output of vehicles, as a supplier, you’ll do anything possible to try and maintain their business. Even being on the team for NA/LATAM customers, we’d be told to sideline what we were working on to support stuff for VW/Mercedes, even though we saw literally no benefit from it as the NA team, and it could seriously hurt some of the projects we were working on. However, the reality was that the business from VW alone was larger than basically every other project we had combined, so it was worth it to piss off our other customers to keep them happy.
I also welcome standard AEB, but I’m not convinced customers are going to like it to be entirely honest. With how the regulation is written, it’s asking a lot from OEMs in terms of performance, and with perfect performance being required to even just sell a vehicle, I fear that we’re going to wind up with ultra-sensitive systems with heaps of false-positive/“phantom braking” reactions, just to ensure they pass the regs. NHTSA in all their infinite wisdom did include some very basic FP testing, but not an acceptable rate of FP per X number of miles. Also, because of the extremely high nighttime requirements, expect headlights to get even more blinding in the coming years…
Also, because I know what sub I’m in, before everyone crucifies me here because I work for an automaker, I do so because I want to make a change from the inside, and my job focus is primarily on making vehicles safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Oh, trust me, I’m well aware of that issue. There’s a lot I can say about that as well, but my point was more how I see this type of article posted time and time again, with Tesla a lot of the time, of “Company patents X feature, here’s how it’ll be the greatest/worst feature in [current model year+1] vehicles!” and it really isn’t the case at all. I know of plenty more dystopian shit going on in the industry as a whole, so I know it’s not a 0% chance of something like this being implemented. I just felt it’s worth being a voice of reason in saying that this isn’t necessarily a feature coming to to the MY27, just because someone had some spare time to put together a PowerPoint of an idea they had to submit to Ford’s IP lawyers.
So, I’m going to be a voice of reason here, also working for a a major US automaker: there’s a 0.0001% chance this would ever be a thing implemented, and is almost definitely just something someone brainstormed and threw in the patent/IP registration system for a nice bonus. We’re heavily encouraged to submit ideas, even if there’s no real plans to ever implement them, and you can make more than $2k for a couple day’s worth of work in some cases.
I’ve come up with some hilariously dystopian ideas, and I’m more than happy to submit them because I know we’ll never bother with implementing them, it keeps other more “ambitious” OEMs from doing it, and the aforementioned monetary bonuses. Just because something is patented, doesn’t mean it’s going into production next week.
Also, because I know what sub I’m in, before everyone crucifies me here because I work for an automaker, I do so because I want to make a change from the inside, and my job focus is primarily on making vehicles safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Serious question, how much does the IIHS tests affect your job?
A lot of the tests I’ve seen are 1-3 mph from making no contact and mitigating the whole incident when it comes to parallel/perpendicular tests for pedestrian systems.
Does anything other than a acceptable or good rating send you back to the drawing board?
Not really back to the drawing board, but more than likely recalibrating the system to improve performance. EU-NCAP /CN-NCAP are a much bigger deal, at least for vehicles that are sold in the EU/CN market, and poor performance on those can mean pushing for larger changes. But even then, they’re seldom “back to the drawing board” just because at that point it’s usually way too late in production to make significant changes.
In the US, the new FMVSS 127 requirements are a huge fucking deal, and are making huge waves in the industry right now. Because they’re regulatory, meaning if you don’t pass you can’t sell the vehicle in the US, they’ve taken what’s been a generally low priority in the US to basically priority #1, especially given how tough the requirements are.
We are quite literally going to have to rework basically every single vehicle model we sell to meet it, some of them quite significantly, so it’s a much bigger deal than stuff like the IIHS requirements.
Gotcha. I figured AEB was pretty much getting to the point of being standard. Didn’t know it was decreed at this point.
I guess I was thinking more if third party targets were missed if it was possible to recalibrate or if new hardware was needed. In my experience, VW specifically, they used different radar units just about every year. And my Mazda is very different in comparison.
I welcome standard AEB. Maybe people will stop totaling my cars.
It’s definitely possible to recal or replace the hardware, it’s just way easier to recal that replace hardware.
One example I can think of is one project whose calibration and braking performance meant it was just eking out a pass, but because of the transition to copper-free brake pads, was now hitting the target. It wasn’t a huge deal, and we had to recalibrate it to brake a bit earlier.
VW (and Mercedes) is a pretty special case in terms of their industry pull. When I worked at a German Tier 1, it was very much a case of if they say “jump” you asked, “how high?”. They have such a massive output of vehicles, as a supplier, you’ll do anything possible to try and maintain their business. Even being on the team for NA/LATAM customers, we’d be told to sideline what we were working on to support stuff for VW/Mercedes, even though we saw literally no benefit from it as the NA team, and it could seriously hurt some of the projects we were working on. However, the reality was that the business from VW alone was larger than basically every other project we had combined, so it was worth it to piss off our other customers to keep them happy.
I also welcome standard AEB, but I’m not convinced customers are going to like it to be entirely honest. With how the regulation is written, it’s asking a lot from OEMs in terms of performance, and with perfect performance being required to even just sell a vehicle, I fear that we’re going to wind up with ultra-sensitive systems with heaps of false-positive/“phantom braking” reactions, just to ensure they pass the regs. NHTSA in all their infinite wisdom did include some very basic FP testing, but not an acceptable rate of FP per X number of miles. Also, because of the extremely high nighttime requirements, expect headlights to get even more blinding in the coming years…
Hey now, this is “cars” not “fuckcars”!
Oh, I was looking for carsfuck.
That’s my bad. I’m so used to seeing that sub come up on Lemmy, I saw “cars” and my brain filled in the fuck, lol
GM was already caught snitching to insurance companies. This isn’t the leap you make it out to be.
Oh, trust me, I’m well aware of that issue. There’s a lot I can say about that as well, but my point was more how I see this type of article posted time and time again, with Tesla a lot of the time, of “Company patents X feature, here’s how it’ll be the greatest/worst feature in [current model year+1] vehicles!” and it really isn’t the case at all. I know of plenty more dystopian shit going on in the industry as a whole, so I know it’s not a 0% chance of something like this being implemented. I just felt it’s worth being a voice of reason in saying that this isn’t necessarily a feature coming to to the MY27, just because someone had some spare time to put together a PowerPoint of an idea they had to submit to Ford’s IP lawyers.