Archinect - News

New 'noise radar' automatically tickets loud cars in Paris

2019-09-04T17:30:00-04:00

Parisians with powerful cars might want to think carefully before showing off their rides. Parts of the city...are testing a "noise radar" system from Bruitparif that can pinpoint loud vehicles and, eventually, ticket them. The system uses four microphones to triangulate the origins of a sound and link it with CCTV footage to pinpoint whoever's making the racket.

About 40 devices are in use. The testing will happen over the course of two years. "A draft law due for vote this fall will let local officials experiment with noise radar fines," reports Engadget.

Seven U.S. cities competing to be the "smartest" in urban transit systems

2016-03-22T13:50:00-04:00

The seven American cities that made the shortlist in the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Smart City Challenge are now deciding their strategies for winning the $40m prize fund...Transportation is the focus, so judges will be interested in self-driving and 'connected' cars, as well as 'smart streets' fitted with sensors. The aim will be to cut accidents, reduce pollution and increase commuter convenience.

The DOT shortlisted seven finalists instead of the originally planned five. They are:

Austin, Texas
Columbus, Ohio
Denver, Colorado
Kansas City, Missouri
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Portland, Oregon
San Francisco, California

The winning city is expected to be announced in June.

More related to transportation technology on Archinect:

U.S. says computers qualify as drivers in Google's autonomous vehicles; won't even have to go to the DMV

Google's self-driving car hits bus and causes its first crash

A first look at the Hyperloop's real tubes and imagined winged terminals

"In LiDAR We Trust" – Poking the subconscious of autonomous vehicles with special guest Geoff Manaugh, on Archinect Sessions #43

Adapting self-driving cars to the world of humans

2015-12-04T11:34:00-05:00

The short history of autonomous vehicles has already shown us that in a closed environmement, cars that drive themselves are pretty great...the problems only begin when you introduce them to real world, non-autonomous environments [...] So Google's new patent makes sense: it contains some new idea on how the cars can communicate with pedestrians on the road as a kind of replacement for all the hand-waving and other non-mechanical signals used by drivers in road situations.

In theory, driving mainly consists of looking through glass, turning a wheel, and putting pressure on one of two pedals. But, as everyone knows, in practice, driving means swerving to avoid tires on freeways, slamming on brakes to escape collisions, waving with your hand to signal to the driver at the stop sign to please, just go first. (I know we both got to the line at the same time. Seriously, you go. No? Not going to go? Fine, I'll go. Oh – nevermind, now you're going. Really?)

So it's not really a surprise that intelligent, rational self-driving cars have difficulty on streets overcrowded with irrational, hubristic humans. Most significantly, self-driving cars will have to be able to drive on city streets teeming with pedestrians. If pedestrian-automotive relations already seem bad, imagine trying to jaywalk in a city filled with robo-cabs.

To deal with this, Google has patented a slew of new ideas, including a "physical signalling system" that would comprise some kind of mechani...