computers control car

How computers took over our cars

Toyota's recall of its Prius model this week wasn't down to a mechanical fault but a software glitch. Increasingly, computers are in control of our cars, says Paul Horrell, and that is changing our relationship with the open road. In this week's recall of the Toyota Prius, there is no faulty mechanical component. All that's necessary is a quick software update to recalibrate the electrically generated pedal "feel" in its braking system. Which just goes to show how deeply computer control is embedded in today's cars. The Prius is such a famously economical car partly because of its regenerative braking system. When the driver touches the brake pedal, there is no mechanical link to the normal brake discs. In gentle braking, all that happens is the electric generator in the powertrain takes up the load, slowing the car by collecting its kinetic energy and re-charging its battery. COMPUTERS IN A MODERN CAR Climate control unit - allows driver to control temperature with thermostat. Also detects pollutants and shuts off air intake accordingly Alarm and immobiliser - controls security. Engine starts when two codes sent wirelessly via aerial in steering wheel Engine management - controls fuel injection, engine temperature, ignition Wiper control - turns on wipers when it rains; adjusts headlights to counteract heavy loads Automatic transmission - monitors weather, load, incline and position of accelerator to select best gear ABS - controls brakes in emergency and can brake any of four wheels to correct a potential skid Airbag - triggers front and side airbags in event of crash or impact Parking aid - operates warning signal to let driver know how close they are to object behind them Q&A: Toyota recalls Connected cars 'promise safer roads' Only when the driver brakes moderately hard, or when the battery is charged, do the electronics hand over the braking effort to the wheel discs. For this to occur smoothly, instantly and predictably is an extraordinarily complex piece of control technology. But then, while they don't have this type of "brake by wire", all modern cars do have some electronics in the brakes. The anti-lock braking system (ABS) detects if a wheel has locked up, which causes a skid. ABS corrects this by over-riding the mechanical command from the pedal, easing the braking pressure on the affected wheel. Back in the 1980s, ABS, along with electronically regulated fuel injection, was one of the first pieces of electronics in cars. They used to be a selling point - now they're standard by law. You can't have modern exhaust emission control without fuel injection, and electronic control is nowadays cheaper and more effective than mechanical. As cars have become more economical over the years, the degree of electronic optimisation of the engine and transmission has grown. And on hybrid cars such as the Prius and Honda Insight, it's orders of magnitude more complex again. All the driver does is press the throttle, but the powertrain electronics module independently controls both the petrol engine and the electric motor, and the transmission that blends them, to give the most economical drive at any given moment. Many of today's computerised systems take the load off the driver, for the sake of safety or convenience. High-end cars have radar-based cruise control to vary their speed, keeping them a safe distance from the car in front. "Crash mitigation" uses the radar to sense that the car in front has stopped or there's an obstacle, and can apply the brakes if the driver fails to. Trickle down effect Camera-based "lane-keeping assist" reads the road markings and nudges the steering to keep the car in its motorway lane. And infra-red-based night-vision systems can recognise pedestrians and warn the driver if they're stepping into the car's path. David 'Knight Rider' Hasselhoff, prophet of the computer-car synthesis These systems are beginning (as with the new Audi A8) to link up with the satellite navigation, the better to predict the road ahead and work more smoothly. And history has shown that these gadgets trickle down. In five years or so they'll be available, at least as options, on mid-market hatchbacks. With this level of electronic driver support, won't cars soon be able to drive themselves? In fact car makers have built prototypes that can do just that. But for years into the future they will stop short of selling them. It's too onerous to take legal responsibility away from the driver. Even so, cars will continue to harvest more and more information about the world around them. Rival manufacturers are co-operating to lay down an automotive wifi standard. The aim is that in a few years from now vehicles will be able to set up ad-hoc car-to-car networks. Cars would send and receive their position, direction and speed to neighbouring vehicles. Your car would warn you if a vehicle was around a corner, coming towards you but hidden. If you don't apply the brakes, it could. Soulless automation This type of networking opens more possibilities. Imagine a localised traffic jam in a city - a truck breaks down, say. Cars that get stuck will report their position to neighbouring cars, which will pass it on to a wider pool of vehicles. The navigation systems in vehicles a few streets away will be able to use this info to re-route and avoid the jam. The golden days - some drivers dislike the feel of modern cars So there's no doubt computerisation is making every car more effective as a transport appliance. But that's a pretty dreary fate for the most expensive piece of technology we ever buy. People don't always want that level of soulless automation. They want an individual relationship with their cars. Electronics come to our aid here too. And it goes beyond just having personal preferences for the entertainment and navigation interfaces. Any system that's governed or modulated by electronics can be re-programmed. For most cars today that means the engine response, steering weight, suspension firmness, climate control, even engine sound. It's becoming common for cars to have a 'sport' button on the dashboard. This lets them feel more relaxed in town, but when the driver presses the button, their responses get more urgent on a faster country road. The engineers for different car brands can go further with this, taking the same basic components (because commonality reduces cost) but baking in a particular character of driving feel by calibrating the firmware to suit their brand. In an age where brands are a means of self-expression, that's become a critical part of car marketing

Genetic Perversions of Orwellian Dimensions.

Traffic in Unborn Babies and Human Sperm and Ova.

Let's sell this one for $20 thou, honey. Knock out a couple more and we'll have the condo and the Mazaratti.

I attended a gathering this morning of people who attest to being Humanists. There was a lecture and then discussion among the audience. The subjects included sale of sperm and human ova and slid to morality of selling a child in the womb by contract.

I was completely against all this, but was amazed that many women in the small audience were more concerned with legality of contracts rather than a child being forcibly taken at birth from a mother who has changed her mind despite any supposed contract.

Of course most if not all of the women present were middle class and middle-aged and appeared to be reasonably well-heeled, mostly from business or academic backgrounds.

The thoughts crossed my mind that humanity will not proceed with women such as this.

They are white, ex Christian and Jewish mostly and appear to have had very few children themselves.

It is notable that societies in the affluent West are losing ground in replacing themselves, while more traditional migrant families with family values favouring family cohesion and religious values are taking over. Moslems are increasing at a greater rate, while Africans and what used to be known as Third World peoples generally are filling niches in Europe and America, where the population is aging rapidly.

This has happened in less than three generations. My grandmother had eleven children, my mother had six and I have sired five.

Perhaps the demographic shift is due to such laudable rights,( which one must not criticize) as greater emphasis on education for women, contraception, more women taking over every aspect of the workplace and the far greater unemployment levels for men.

In any case, it is likely that groups of women in the future will be ethnic traditionalists, working in the home creating families rather than careers more likely discussing their next pregnancy than the immoral transplantation of human seed and the selling of babies to the highest bidder. I hope so. Otherwise it will be procreation factories and embryonic stem-cell manipulation.

If that happens, I believe such a perverted, distorted non-society deserves to be obliterated either naturally or by the genetic outbursts of the rest of real humanity.( Ric)

Sperm Donors' Offspring Reach out into Past But Those Searching for Roots Can Run into Rules and Dead Ends

by Judith Graham

Augusta, Georgia - There is no parenting manual for the questions that nag Bobby Gerardot. What exactly is his relationship to Katie Whitaker, the 21-year-old who contacted him 3 years ago after discovering he was the sperm donor responsible for her birth? Is he her father, with all that role entails? If not that, what - a fatherly friend? And how does he integrate Whitaker and her mother, who have moved to his hometown, into his life with two young sons and his wife, Lisa?

"I'm still trying to figure it out," said Gerardot, who readily admits that coming into contact with Whitaker has "shaken everything up."

As the first large generation of sperm donor babies comes of age, some are beginning to look for their biological dads, much as adopted children have sought out their birth parents. The searches pit young people's desire to discover their roots against donors' expectations that their identities never will be disclosed. Like so many new developments, this one is unfolding in large part on the Internet, where many sperm donor offspring are posting queries about their origins and claiming a right to know their parentage. Increasingly, that right is being recognised abroad. This spring, Britain became the latest country to say that children conceived this way can find out, when they turn 18, who the donor was. Several other European countries have similar laws.

Dr Joseph Feldschuh of Idant Laboratories, a large sperm bank in New York City, is appalled by the developments. "Most donors really don't want any kind of relationship with their offspring," he said. "Eliminate anonymity and you eliminate a great many donors."

Tracking Down Donors

Young people also are trying to find their donor dads by asking sperm banks to make contact on their behalf (some will, most won't), delving into their mother's medical files and following any clues, such as the donor's occupation. Ann, who lives on the East Coast and asked that her last name not be used, suspected her mother's gynæcologist was her sperm donor and sent him a package with a DNA sample, inviting him to have it compared to his own. When the package was sent back with a curt "`I can't help you' response," Ann searched through the university's archives in his hometown, hoping to find a visual clue in a college yearbook picture. "There was instant familiarity," she said, describing her reaction upon finding the doctor's photograph. "He has the same face as my daughter, the same eyes as my son. I just knew."

The booming sperm bank business in the United States largely is unregulated, and no one keeps track of how many donors father how many infants. Conservative estimates put the number of offspring from anonymous donors at more than 30,000 a year, or 1 million total, but this is little more than guesswork. Men are paid about $65 to $100 per sample. Experts say as many as 80% of offspring never have been told how they were conceived. Those who do know tend to be intensely curious.