Not a good idea – to ride a bicycle near a busy road. Especially in the evening or at night. The presence of classical signal lights can not be saved by inattentive drivers.

Another thing – the new “paint” from Volvo. The company has created a unique spray LifePaint, reducing the likelihood of tragic collisions in the dark.
A real gift for fans of two-wheeled transport.

The technology works as follows. On the “bike” and clothing applied “intelligent” structure. By day he is invisible, does not leave any traces of use.

But it is worth dusk, LifePaint glows in the glow of headlights. The closer the machine, the brighter the cyclist “shines”. Do not notice it is simply impossible.

These properties are “invention” Volvo retains within 10 days. Or before the first heavy rain. Then the processing procedure must be repeated.

Unfortunately, spray sold exclusively in the United Kingdom.

Source: Engadget

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Volvo closer to ensure that by 2017 road turned 100 self-vehicles of the brand. Recall that the Swedish program for the development and testing of a self-managed machines called «Drive Me». The main objective of the project technician Eric Koeling Volvo calls the creation of such a vehicle, which can independently “get out” of any situation on the road. In addition to Volvo in this project involves the Ministry of Transport of Sweden, the Swedish Transport Agency, the company Lindholmen Science Park and the municipality of Gothenburg.

Let’s look at the principle of operation of these machines in more detail and try to figure out how to move safely on the route if the driver at this time reading a newspaper or view the latest news on Facebook.

It is worth to mention that the cars will be available only to residents of Gothenburg, where the machines will be made. The work is based on the self-car the whole complex sensors to ensure the autonomy of cars on the highways of the city. In this case, the drivers will have to control his vehicle on and off these roads, as well as in case of inclement weather.

Volvo – only 100 cars in 2017? Not enough

Cars are based on a number of systems, many of which are available today. In the car, you can find advanced computers and a lot of seemingly unnecessary details. So even in the case of system failure will continue to drive the car. Volvo representatives say that drew inspiration from the aviation sector.

Multiple sensors, including radar, sonar, laser scanners and optical cameras will monitor everything that is happening around the car with a 360 degrees. This information helps the machine to detect obstacles and recognize road markings and speed limit signs. Built-in 3D-maps and GPS-recognition, as well as wireless system interaction with car traffic infrastructure allow the car to get the most current information about traffic.

In case of bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances, the driver can disable autonomous functionality of his car and start to drive yourself. If the driver can not just take control of the vehicle control, the machine will stop in a safe place on the side of the road.

Source: Cnet

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Yesterday, after Apple announced CarPlay – a new feature for iOS iPhone integration with cars, two companies have decided to show it in action. Volvo released the first promotional video with CarPlay starring in which today announced the technology in its new SUV XC90 SUV, and then the corresponding statement was made by Mercedes-Benz, publishing several photos CarPlay at new C-Class. The car will be presented at the Geneva Motor Show this month.

Video from Volvo demonstrates most of the features of the new features: making calls, dictation and sending SMS-messages, run a variety of applications, including music like Spotify . In its execution, it is vaguely reminiscent infomercials new products Apple.

Unlike Volvo, Mercedes decided to submit a small photo to work CarPlay, remembering all the basic functions. Here, for example, then it’s navigation application. 

On the main screen displays all applications from your iPhone, supporting CarPlay. 

Interface to make calls is not very different from that in iOS. 

Listen to music? 

All push-notifications from supported applications will appear not only on the smartphone screen, but also on the vehicle display. 

Volvo representatives noted that the system will combine CarDisplay existing solutions from the car manufacturer, but it is not clear exactly how they can “make friends,” wrote 9to5Mac. Mercedes-Benz has already taken care of it – in the pictures above you will notice an icon of its own application COMAND. The company claims that it will not be limited to iOS and will be developed in other directions.

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At a special event in Detroit, Ford presented to the public car modification Fusion Hybrid, designed to test a new system of automatic driving.

Homing version of Fusion Hybrid looks like a regular Fusion Hybrid 2014 issue, if not look at the roof. That’s where the system is installed Lidar and several 360-degree rotating camera. In Ford believe that with their help, the car can get the most detailed topographical and visual representation of the environment.

Tandem of four devices cylindrical shape under the force output maximum detailed image in real time, allowing the car to distinguish moving (frightened animals, pedestrians and moving cars) and nedvizhuschiesya (alleys, congresses and benches) objects.

Collected information and its processing algorithms developed by researchers at Michigan State University, will help the car regardless of the mode of transportation to eliminate the possibility of traffic accidents.

During the event, Ford’s vice president of product development at Raj Nair stressed that the experimental vehicle is not self-controlled car and will only be used to test new “modern driver assistance systems.” For example, self-parking systems or automatic bypass obstacles.

Of course, Ford plans to look not so ambitious as Google’s plans or Volvo , which plans to release its self-managed road cars robots. However, Ford is by nature is not as aggressive as Google and always occupied a middle ground between the desire to innovate at a speed of technological and characteristic for the automotive industry in Detroit conservatism.

Nevertheless, the issue of self-car company Ford is to be commended, as together with other automakers and the National Road Safety (NHTSA) is working on the implementation of the concept to include all vehicles in a single network. The idea is that all the cars do not just have to interact with the environment through cameras and data processing algorithms, but also to communicate with each other with a view to joint movement coordination. If cars can synchronize and communicate with each other, the need for a system Lidar, which can advance to see an obstacle in the form of moving towards the car disappear. Implementation of this concept will also be able to solve other problems. For example, to save fuel and avoid traffic jams.

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Carmaker Volvo is actively developing a concept car dashboard Concept You, when you use a minimum of physical buttons and everything is built on the basis of user-friendly touch interface, easy to be used even on the move. His new version is used in the car Concept Coupe, which in itself is an interesting concept.

This two-door car with a 2-liter hybrid engine, but its power in this case is an impressive 400 hp On the technical magic that was used to reach such a result, Volvo specialists do not apply, but only vaguely hinted at the use of a supercharger and a turbo.

However, the main focus of the prototype, the company still makes the interface and on the instrument panel, which is present only five physical buttons. A live demonstration of the prototype is scheduled for 2014, but in selling something similar can be seen not earlier than 3-5 years.

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Volvo has unveiled a concept evolving charging station for its hybrid V60 plug-in.

Translucent canopy, covered with solar panels, keeps an unusual shape through the tubes of carbon fiber on the perimeter. The entire design of collapsible and can be stowed in the trunk of the car.

This station is capable of 12 hours to fully charge the battery model V60 plug-in, which provides up to 50 kilometers without using the gasoline engine.

Unfortunately, this is only a concept, mass production of the “solar canopy” is not planned.

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