SUPERIOR Twp., Mich. – The Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center Inc. (HATCI) has partnered with the University of Michigan on two advanced automotive engineering projects focused on distracted driving and fuel economy. As a world-renowned university with a main campus located near HATCI’s Superior Twp., Mich., location, the University of Michigan provides a deep pool of top-tier scholastic talent and is a logical partner for HATCI, the automaker said. The new projects will pair graduate students and professors from the University’s College of Engineering and School of Kinesiology with HATCI vehicle engineers to work alongside each other to produce unique solutions to ever-changing customer needs and technology challenges.
The partnership is beneficial to both parties as, in addition to collaborative research, it provides an engineering recruiting opportunity for HATCI, targeting University of Michigan graduates, and will help retain engineering talent in the local area.
As Kia Motors America (KMA) continues to launch new vehicles in the U.S. market, innovative technologies are finding their way into products that customers can drive today. The 2014 Kia Cadenza is KMA’s most technologically advanced vehicle on the road with available features such as lane departure warning, adaptive headlights, adaptive cruise control and blind-spot detection systems.
Highway Hypnosis
The first project the two organizations will partner on is known as "highway hypnosis," a mental state in which a person can drive great distances without recollection of having consciously done so. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 3,331 people were killed in distracted driving-related accidents in 2011, and NHTSA estimates another 387,000 more were injured. The team of engineers and students will conduct a way to measure driver brainwaves using Electroencephalograph (EEG) sensors. Utilization of this brainwave activity information has the potential to detect the early onset of driver drowsiness, which would then result in a tactile and audible alert to the driver. Current methods of detecting driver drowsiness are noting changes in head position and eyelid activity, both of which require a longer time to determine potential danger; whereas EEG sensors may detect driver drowsiness prior to the driver’s behavioral change taking place.
Dual Pre-Chamber Lean-Burn Combustion
The second project coming out of the partnership involves an emphasis on improved fuel economy using a Dual Pre-Chamber (DPC) lean-burn combustion system. This study focuses on combustion chamber and piston dome geometry development to support lean-burn combustion. Initial studies will examine in-cylinder flows using advanced computational fluid dynamics tools to optimize flow. Subsequent work will be carried out using a single cylinder optical engine to visualize the flow and perform further optimization studies. The graduate students will support the single cell optical study, while HATCI engineers develop the cylinder hardware. Together, HATCI and University of Michigan engineers will develop and test this new DPC lean-burn combustion system on HATCI’s dynamometer.
