Ambient Air Quality Monitor

18

Now Implemented!

Description

Monitor the outside air quality for any unhealthy air.

Competitive/Pricing/Notes

Use the measured data to:

1. Warn through voice if the level measured is above a certain setting while driving.

2. Warn through voice when stopping the car if the measured level is above a certain setting.

3. Automatically enable air filter function (e.g. Biodefence Mode) when judged necessary.

4. Automatically report measured data to cloud services for live detailed dynamic street-level monitoring of areas far superior to current air quality measurements.

This is a particularly attractive feature for markets like China and others where especially urban conditions of air quality can reach concerning levels.

A range of different air quality metrics can be monitored and the tradeoff between cost, precision, and substances/particle sizes have to be evaluated.

Moderator: Some sensors can relatively cheap to detect one specific pollution component like CO2. To provide a broadband measurement, systems can cost tens of thousands of dollars to perform reliable air quality analysis. These products may also require frequent calibration and/or sensor replacement as the devices get contaminated by the particles and gases they are measuring.

Status

An air quality sensor is implemented in the mid-2021 Model S and X.

lightly edited by moderator
Category: XS Applies to:
Tags:
     Created 1-Nov-2015

2 Comments

I have air quality sensors in our two Volvos, so that it switched to recirculation in tunnels if the air was bad. But they stopped working after a few years, and I never bothered to replace the sensors because it worked to slow anyhow, bad air filling the car before it started recirculating.
    Created 4-Mar-2023
Fred
310
I wouldn't care much about CO2 in this context. That's more of a climate change concern.

Rather I would care about particulate matter, especially PM 2.5, that normally an air filter is aimed to capture. Surely lots of sensing abilities can be added but to keep it cheap, you could start with something on the level of already mass produced consumer products.

For example:

http://www.withings.com/us/en/products/home?

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Good-quality-Meeting-present-Smart-home_60152978302.html

I doubt the sensor cost is more than a few US$ for basic particulate matter sensing.

Example of sensor:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Dust-particle-sensordust-sensor-moduleair-quality_1810090292.html?spm=a2700.7724838.30.260.6YU63n

Some background examples of where air filters make a serious difference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6X2uwlQGQM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebv1hnuDzfs

 
    Created 1-Nov-2015