AUTOMOTIVE - VEHICULAR ARTICLES MAIN PAGE

3/21/2018· Automotive - Vehicular

A Paradigm Shift in Motorcoach Accessibility, Part 1: The MCI D45 CRT LE Commuter Coach

By: Ned Einstein

As an urban planner by background, there are certain clichés I have grown to loath. Among my least favorite is the phrase 'paradigm shift.' This is because few things in the transportation field ever comprise a paradigm shift. Among the true exceptions were the 45-foot-long coach, the proliferation of double-deckers, Megabus pricing, and the advances in super-clean diesel engines. Autonomous coaches seem decades away (even while exploding on the scene in Europe). Otherwise, nothing else close to a paradigm shift in this traditional industry comes to mind.

4/12/2018· Transportation

A Paradigm Shift in Motorcoach Accessibility, Part 2: The MCI D45 CRT LE Commuter Coach

By: Ned Einstein

In Part 1 of this three-installment series, I characterized the development of MCI's new ramp-equipped accessible motorcoach (the MCI D45 CRT LE) as a "paradigm shift." While I will expand on why this is so in the third and last installment next month, this installment will overview the most unique features of this remarkable vehicle -- a vehicle whose ultimate potential I feel has not yet been realized.

7/14/2009· Forensic Analysis

Automobile Braking

By: Kristopher J. Seluga, PE

Accident reconstructionists are often called on to determine the distance that a car, covers while being braked to a stop. Conversely, the reconstructionist may be given information as to the length of the skidmarks left by a car on the roadway, and may be asked to determine how fast the car must have been going at the beginning of the skid. An expert can accomplish this with considerable accuracy, based on a knowledge of the physical principles that are involved, plus available information relating to the friction of tires on various types of road surfaces.

7/14/2017· Automotive - Vehicular

Autonomous and Inevitable, Part 6: The Transition to Complete Autonomy

By: Ned Einstein

When an asteroid strikes a planet, things tend to change quickly. Most other changes occur gradually, even while a small handful are occasionally more significant. These latter changes are sometimes referred to as "paradigm shifts," largely because they affect so many things around them, and cause such dramatic changes in the things they affect directly.

8/24/2017· Automotive - Vehicular

Autonomous and Inevitable, Part 8: Access and Accountability

By: Ned Einstein

What is interesting, and the focus of this installment, is the glaring disparity between the magnitude of information available about a vehicle or driver's performance and the general disinterest in examining it. This disparity is not a technological problem. It is largely an institutional and attitudinal problem. Or one might characterize it as a cultural problem. Or a values problem in a money-oriented society. Nevertheless, it raises an important point about driverless vehicles: While a vehicle's brain may contribute to and/or improve safety (fewer accidents and incidents) and performance (e.g., better mileage, less pollution), this brain's extraordinary analytical capabilities may be pointless because no non-robot is likely to ever examine the data.

9/12/2017· Automotive - Vehicular

Autonomous and Inevitable, Part 9: Conclusion -- The Best of Both Worlds

By: Ned Einstein

The past eight installments of this series covered a lot of ground -- some technical, but mostly socio-economic and conceptual. But in the debate over the pros and cons of human versus robotic drivers, is it not possible to have the wisdom to take the best of both worlds? In early articles I acknowledged some of the advantages of Highly-Automated Vehicles (HAVs), including:

10/5/2019· Automotive - Vehicular

Autonomous and Inevitable: Drivers v. Robots, Part 1

By: Ned Einstein

This series of installments, which shall appear periodically, will examine some likely reactions to the robots by drivers.

5/16/2014· Automotive - Vehicular

Buses and Motorcoaches: Directing the Students Across

By: Ned Einstein

At the rudimentary level at which most crossing procedures are executed, schoolbus drivers are supposed to "direct" the students across the roadway when they are certain that either the traffic has been stopped in both directions or it is so distant (if even visible) that the students could easily complete their crossing before any oncoming vehicles reach the bus. The bus would obviously have its red flashers and stop arm engaged as a "fail safe."

4/10/2014· Automotive - Vehicular

Buses and Motorcoaches: New Thinking about Crossing Safety

By: Ned Einstein

Drummed into my head as a schoolchild was the mantra, "Cross at the Green, Not In Between." This slogan still provides the basis for Today's thinking about following the pedestrian path to and from school or a student's bus stop. When last year, a study of 7,000 pedestrian accidents in New York City over a four-year period was released, its findings turned this century-old cliché on its head. The implications for the pupil transportation industry are dramatic, and should awaken all of us to a new reality that may save hundreds if not thousands of lives a year, since most vehicle-pedestrian accidents happen to students walking or cycling to school, as well most of those traveling by schoolbus who are struck when crossing by third-party vehicles.

7/5/2021· Automotive - Vehicular

Connected Cars: How C-V2X In 5G Will Transform Cars And Save Lives

By: Keith Mallinson

Technological improvements in cars over the decades have generally reduced costs or increased performance and safety. “Analog” technologies including collapsible steering columns, crumple zones and seatbelts have saved car occupants from death or serious injury. Many digital technologies have also improved our in-car experience with entertainment, mobile communications