'Most technically advanced police car' revealed

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 14 August 2007 11:20

Your IT - Home IT

It might not be Knight Rider's K.I.T.T, but the "world's most technically advanced police car" was unveiled at the SmartDemo 2007 intelligent transport systems conference and exhibition in Melbourne today.

Developed by the National Safety Agency, General Motors, Motorola and Monash University under the auspices of the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Automotive Technology (AutoCRC), the car is available to emergency agencies around Australia and will shortly be evaluated by the New South Wales Police.

The main problems associated with adding IT to emergency vehicles involve heat and power management, explained NCS director of operations Des Bahr. These issues were largely overcome by adding a second battery to the vehicle and integrating around a dozen functions onto a single CPU.

The VE Commodore's special features include face, fingerprint and number plate recognition (up to 9000 registrations can be checked during a normal shift), plus front, rear and in-car video cameras. Supervisors can watch what is happening (eg, during a pursuit) and give appropriate instructions, while a duress button allows police members to trigger remote monitoring, including via wireless microphones while they are away from the car.

Other technologies include voice recognition, mapping and location, power management systems to turn off non-essential items (eg, windscreen wipers when seatbelt sensors show the car is unoccupied), and in-field reporting to reduce the time members spend in the office instead of on patrol. A roof-mounted solar panel will soon be added to help keep the batteries fully charged.

On the communications side, the car connects to the emergency services voice and data network, GPRS (or, by changing cards, 3G), wireless mesh networks, and Wi-Fi for links to handheld devices.

"We're harnessing technology developed for other areas," said Bahr.

Fitting all the equipment into the car while maintaining compliance with Australian Design Rules was an important issue, a Motorola spokesperson said, but it is an area where the company has the necessary expertise. Motorola also worked with General Motors to ensure the impact of removing the equipment was minimal, as this will help resale values.

More prosaically, high-intensity LED lights plus improved decals make the car visible at greater distances in day or night conditions.

The concept vehicle was assembled in six weeks, and the system will be ready for deployment in spring 2008.