Member Info for TheLongestShot

Whatif, goes is this for a vague statement :

Active Drive Assist will feature as an option on select 2021 model-year Ford, as well as in the Mustang Mach-E range.

I bope we might see it in the f150 and the Bronco. Let's hope some other mass market vehicles rather than high end low volume

I'm glad that Ford managed to launch hands free in the Mach-E rather than in the F-150. As for the next few years, hands free will be referred to "as launched with Mach-E" a halo vehicle rather than being associated with a work-a-day truck. (Assuming they don't try and tell us that it is hands free like the Tesla which isn't!)

The foreground /background segmentation is interesting. May be useful for the outside view rather than us in the inside. Unless of course you are driving and having a zoom call and need to change the background.

Painful to read, but essentially the seat belt will be tightened to get your attention if needed and DMS notices you aren't paying attention

Sorry UD, I was answering the training to drive question as though you were learning to swim by jumping in the deep end. In reality, this is probably being used but on a single step. For example use eye tracking to highlight where the eye is looking, but where the vision system has not identified a car /tree/person/sign etc. The clip would then be sent for further analysis. This could be labeling the object so that the object can be used in future training, or to identify other classes of objects that need to be trained - kangaroos in Australia ot people in costumes at Halloween.

Morg, UD, it is possible but not the most efficient way. Taking your traffic light example, models will be trained on thousands of photographs of traffic light it will be making sure that it can spot one in a scene and after some training whether it is red green or Amber, or a combination or if one is flashing. But then you have to worry about the rules, yes you could infer from the driver, but the process needs to be very thorough. I'd rather code the actions manually along with other rules of the road. Especial as the meaning is different in different areas (turning right on red!). However, instead of training your car from scratch, imagine training your vacuum cleaner or robot dog. It would arrive already programmed for the basics, but you could customise it for your environment and preferences.

Let's hope that Friday 26th is a working day for Seeing Machines so they can issue the RMS

https://twitter.com/mrlevine/status/1273763360526315521?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Mike Levine
@mrlevine
June 25 at 8 pm ET #BuiltFordTough

that is 01:00 am Friday 26th, British Summer Time (BST)

Camera/cameras - do I need to correct myself? Maybe there is one by the mirror and in the pillar as well as the steering column. Not seen them or seen this mentored elsewhere.

From Sam Abuelsamid:

A number of automakers are now following GM’s lead in incorporating an active driver monitor system as part of its more advanced assist capabilities. GM and BMW both utilize infrared cameras to detect the driver’s head position and eye gaze while using the hands-free feature. Ford has actually gone a step further with ADA by incorporating 3 IR cameras that enable a more unobstructed view even if the driver has moved their arm in front of the camera. Presumably, if these cameras are angled slightly differently, it would also mitigate the problem that GM had with the Cadillac CT6 implementation of Super Cruise that would occasionally cause the camera to be “blinded” by the sun shining over the driver’s shoulder.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2020/06/18/hands-free-driving-coming-to-2021-ford-mustang-mach-e/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Zeq,
I'm going to guess that you have cruise control (or adaptive cc) and start/stop for the engine. One of the new features for cruise control is that it can be stationary for < 30 seconds, then start up and go back to the set cruising speed. That really needs DMS to make sure it is safe.

JC another great patent to add to our collection.

Shallwe, you are right, but it is not just the clever control of the LEDs and camera, it is the fallback to using multiple images of the eye and merging the images to reduce the noise while increasing the signal - that is great stuff, especially while the eye may have moved between images - genius!

Well done John Noble - kudos

Red'Rocket, the wording from Ford's announcement was clear. There may be cameras watching the road, but there was only one camera watching the driver. So that generally rules out Smart Eye, as they operate using multiple cameras to get a stereo image for 3d location, whereas we use multiple LEDs and our patents.

Esc,

I think the camera and LEDs are on the steering column, which in this picture you can see just beneath the dashboard display.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/pictures/ford-mustang-mach-e-electric-suv/47/

The windscreen box behind the mirror will contain the forward facing cameras for lane assist etc.
Just my opinion. I didn't see any pictures of the mirror in this batch

Hopefully, the DMS is running all the time from launch or they won't get 5 stars from NCap. It is the release of the handsfree function that will come OTA in 2021 Q3, but I expect there will be a few other upgrades too before then

I wonder if he said dashboard area, because he knows that it is in the mirror in the F-150?

Ok, using the build your own car from the US site, I can see that "Ford Co-Pilot360™ 2.0 + Co-Pilot 360™ Assist 2.0" is in the "Select" model, "Premium" model, "California RT1 Edition" model. It doesn't mention it in the "GT" model which is the highest version, but given the extra cost of that model at being a GT it has to be in there.

https://www.ford.com/buy/mach-e/build-and-price.html?config=WANAB-CGW-2021-CX727#/model

In the UK, we don't seem to get the same choice (since we don't have the 100,000 miles of US roads!), but we do get "ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL WITH STOP & GO" in the main model I can't see why that wouldn't be included in the AWD version.
https://www.ford.co.uk/shop/price-and-locate/pre-order/build-your-own?config=WAEGB-CGW-2021-CX727BEVSUVGBR202100#/model

So it looks like we should be in every Mustang Mach-E

Here is the full media pack from Ford (finally)

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2020/06/18/ford-co-pilot360-technology-adds-hands-free-driving.html

" Extensive testing

Ford has put Active Drive Assist through its paces to create a driving experience that customers can be confident in – one that’s actually hands-free as long as the driver-facing camera can monitor head position and eye gaze instead of relying only on monitoring driver attention through steering wheel grip, as other systems do.

Ford subjected its Active Drive Assist test vehicles to the Mother of All Road Trips, exposing its sensors to snow, rain, bright sun, dark nights, traffic jams and open roads over hundreds of thousands of miles across the U.S., Canada and Europe in an attempt to expose the sensors to a variety of extremely specific scenarios – or gray areas – so the technology is as ready to handle the array of real-world conditions drivers face daily.

“Our team has aggressively tested Active Drive Assist to bring something to our customers’ lives that they can trust,” said Justin Teems, Active Drive Assist feature lead. “We go to far-flung places around the U.S. and Canada – from Florida to California, from Quebec to Texas, Wyoming and Idaho – to try to stimulate those rare-case sensor measurements we might not get anywhere else, capturing data in a number of different ways.”



1 Driver-assist features are supplemental and do not replace the driver’s attention, judgment and need to control the vehicle. It does not replace safe driving. See Owner's Manual for detail and limitations.

2 Active Drive Assist is a hands-free highway driving feature. The Active Drive Assist Prep Kit contains the hardware required for this feature. Software for the feature will be available for purchase at a later date. Separate payment for feature software required to activate full functionality at that time. "

I like this bit:
***All versions of the new Mustang Mach-E will be equipped with the sensor suite for Active Drive Assist***

“Some of the systems on sale are very strong and they lock in, and when you get a little nervous or want to steer away or take over, you really have to wrestle with it,” Palmer said, without directly mentioning Super Cruise. “It's very unnerving for people. We really wanted to make sure we didn't have that – when you want to resume control, you just steer.”

https://www.motor1.com/news/429350/ford-active-drive-assist-hands-free-driving/

- That sounds like Tesla, not SuperCruise that he is complaining about

Here is a contemporary source for the JLR, Intel, Seeing Machines demo

https://media.jaguarlandrover.com/en-us/news/2015/01/jaguar-land-rover-intel-and-seeing-machines-showcase-innovative-driver-attention