Few things are as disheartening as driving through a shower of gravel kicked up by another vehicle and seeing your car’s scratched and chipped paintwork afterward. So the patent Mercedes-Benz recently filed with the European Patent Office is particularly interesting, as it uses existing technology to detect and avoid such road hazards.
Another Useful Application of Lidar
Many modern cars come equipped with lidar (light detection and ranging) to detect objects, obstacles, and other vehicles when cars’ driver-assistance systems like adaptive cruise control and hands-free driving systems are engaged. Mercedes-Benz says it can also use lidar to keep an eye out for flying stones and other debris that can damage your paintwork. It is combined with a cabin-mounted microphone that listens for the tell-tale sound of stones hitting the windshield as an additional redundant detection system.
How It Works
Lidar can detect the trajectory, size, and speed of flying objects and is linked to a system that calculates the threat level in real time, while you’re driving. If the threat level is high, the system can proactively engage driver-assistance systems to initiate a lane change to get out of the path of the debris or apply the brakes to increase the distance between your vehicle and the hazard. In this way, a hazard can be avoided and damage to your car prevented the instant a threat is detected, and potentially before the driver is aware of it. The vehicle can respond to and mitigate the risk without driver input.
Lidar Provides Proactive Protection Against Vehicle Damage
An anticipatory and proactive system such as this highlights the multiple uses of existing technologies and combines them to improve the user experience and prevent damage to vehicles, sparing vehicle owners the hassle and cost of dealing with repairs. Some automakers have called into question the need for lidar if multiple cameras are fitted as camera-based systems effectively detect clearly visible objects such as road signs and other vehicles. But lidar is better at detecting small objects in adverse visibility, which makes it ideal for this type of system.
