Michigan wllz

YPSILANTI — So connected vehicles are coming, but when?

Experts who gathered for a forum on connected vehicles sponsored by the Center for Automotive Research disagreed about the timeframe.

Jeff Adik, chairman and founder of Intraduce Transit, said what the industry is calling IntelliDrive could be a reality as soon as 2016, but Dave LeBlanc, assistant research scientist for the University of Michigan Transportation Institute, said it won’t happen that soon. Chris Borroni-Bird, director of advanced technology vehicle concepts for General Motors, predicted connected vehicles hitting the road in a decade.

One challenge, said Steve Millstein, president of the ATX Group, will be to find a balance between the autonomous car and allowing the driver to have control of the vehicle. Millstein said that he enjoys driving his BMW 6-Series and isn’t ready to give it up to a computer all of the time.

“Driving is a passion for me, but for some, it’s not,” Millstein said.

Part of the project to connect vehicles will also allow companies to research consumer wants and needs. Car owners will have the option of customizing their cars. For example, instead of the typical instrument panel of today’s cars, future vehicles could have a computer-generated heads-up display that is personalized by the driver.

Borroni-Bird said that the connected vehicle may prove to be more efficient than even mass transit systems because the vehicles would drive exactly to and from where the occupants need to go instead of a general route that takes occupants out of their way for the sake of others. The space needed for parking could even be reduced because autonomous cars wouldn’t need as much space for getting into and out of parking spaces since the vehicles would be able to coordinate and better arrange themselves.

Borroni-Bird said one of the keys will be maintaining the freedom and personal statements people have with the current range of vehicle choices.

“Those are things that people cherish about personal mobility that we want to preserve,” Borroni-Bird said.

LeBlanc said UMTRI is getting ready to conduct a study where real-world drivers will test Honda Accords and heavy trucks retrofitted with active crash avoidance technology. In the pilot project leading up to the full study, LeBlanc said institute researchers found people are receptive to the new technology.

“People liked it,” he said.