Approach Control Warning seeing Ghosts?

GetOffYourGas

GetOffYourGas

Well-Known Member
My MINI's Approach Control Warning must have seen a ghost this morning. Suddenly my car started beeping at me and the "Approach Control Warning" light came on. I was the only car on the road, and there were no animals or other obstructions present. This is the same commute I take 4-5 days a week. And this is not the first time it has happened to me.

Has this happened to anyone else? I'm at a loss as to what might be triggering it.
 
Its happened to me a few times. Usually when I'm driving round a slight speed retriction bollard or sign. I think its the sensitivity of the sensors. It happens that fast,especially if your at a certain distance, that they err on the side of caution, just to be on the safe side. It does throw you for a moment though:)
 
Maybe a car shaped bug flew directly at the camera? The single center camera is definitely a weak point compared to most of these systems that have dual cameras and can compare the images to reduce false positives.

Mine hasn't triggered on a ghost but it has been triggered by an oncoming car in the other lane.
 
The bug theory could explain it. I don't really trust a single camera to do this well. You cannot get depth perception from one eye. So does it just make guesses based on how quickly an image is getting bigger? I'd love to know more about how the system works.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
The bug theory could explain it. I don't really trust a single camera to do this well. You cannot get depth perception from one eye. So does it just make guesses based on how quickly an image is getting bigger? I'd love to know more about how the system works.
Click to expand...

If you shut one eye, you can still drive right? Lol
Machine vision and learning can do some crazy things with simple hardware.

This is all just semi-informed guessing but theoretically, the system could be taught to identify vehicles and could gauge distance based on perceived width vs expected width (car vs semi are very different shape but roughly the same width). This could then be used along with the rate of change of the size to calculate distance and speed differential. When this calculated value goes over some threshold for some defined time period, the system alerts you.
 
I like the RADAR based avoidance system better than optical (including leddar), although a combination of the two reduces false alarms significantly.

Usually false alarming of optical systems is due to sun or reflective light interference. The adaptive cruise will drop out when heading into the sun. They use many of the same algorithms as approach or collision warnings. I'd guest the algorithm details BMW uses is a trade secret.

https://leddartech.com/app/uploads/...ution-Overview-Leddar-for-automotive-ADAS.pdf

and

https://ipsl.lk/documents/TechSession/2016/IPSL 2016 Paper 1.pdf

may be of some interest.
 
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Thanks for the links! I have recently begun learning about computer vision and machine learning techniques. Fascinating stuff. Especially the fact that, once trained, we still don't know exactly how the machines are learning to recognize objects (although our understanding is growing every year).
 
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