On the Road with GPT-4V(ision): Early Explorations of Visual-Language Model on Autonomous Driving

The pursuit of autonomous driving technology hinges on the sophisticated integration of perception, decision-making, and control systems. Traditional approaches, both data-driven and rule-based, have been hindered by their inability to grasp the nuance of complex driving environments and the intentions of other road users. This has been a significant bottleneck, particularly in the development of common sense reasoning and nuanced scene understanding necessary for safe and reliable autonomous driving. The advent of Visual Language Models (VLM) represents a novel frontier in realizing fully autonomous vehicle driving. This report provides an exhaustive evaluation of the latest state-of-the-art VLM, GPT-4V(ision), and its application in autonomous driving scenarios. We explore the model's abilities to understand and reason about driving scenes, make decisions, and ultimately act in the capacity of a driver. Our comprehensive tests span from basic scene recognition to complex causal reasoning and real-time decision-making under varying conditions. Our findings reveal that GPT-4V demonstrates superior performance in scene understanding and causal reasoning compared to existing autonomous systems. It showcases the potential to handle out-of-distribution scenarios, recognize intentions, and make informed decisions in real driving contexts. However, challenges remain, particularly in direction discernment, traffic light recognition, vision grounding, and spatial reasoning tasks. These limitations underscore the need for further research and development. Project is now available on GitHub for interested parties to access and utilize: \url{https://github.com/PJLab-ADG/GPT4V-AD-Exploration

Controllable Introduction of Surface Defects on CH₃NH₃PbI₃ Perovskite

One of the unique characteristics of semiconductors is the strong dependence of their properties on crystal defects and doping. However, due to the species diversity and low density, it is very difficult to control the type and concentration of the defects. In perovskite materials, crystal defects are randomly formed during the fast crystallization process, causing large heterogeneity of the samples. Here, in this work, we report a controllable method to introduce surface defects on CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite materials via the interaction with 1,4-benzoquinone (BQ) molecules on the gas and solid interface. After the adsorption of BQ molecules on the perovskite surface, surface defects can be generated by photoinduced chemical reactions. The concentration of the defects can thus be controlled by precisely regulating the laser irradiation time. The concentration of the defects can be characterized by a gradually decreased PL intensity and lifetime and was found to influence the atmospheric response and the subsequent acetone-induced degradation of the materials. These results demonstrate that crystal defects in perovskite materials can be controllably introduced, which provides a possible way to fully understand the correlation between the nature and chemical structure of these defects

Aspheric Surface Measurement Using Capacitive Sensors

This paper proposes a new method for the measurement of spherical coordinates by using capacitive sensors as a non-contact probe solution of measurement of aspheric surfaces. The measurement of the average effect of the capacitive probe and the influence of capacitive probe tilting were studied with respect to an eccentric spherical surface. Based on the tested characteristic curve of the average effect of the sphere and probe, it was found that nonlinear and linear compensation resulted in high measurement accuracy. The capacitance probe was found to be trying to fulfill a need for performing nm-level precision measurement of aspheric electromagnetic surfaces

Ginsenoside Rd alleviates mouse acute renal ischemia/reperfusion injury by modulating macrophage phenotype

Background: Ginsenoside Rd (GSRd), a main component of the root of Panax ginseng, exhibits anti-inflammation functions and decreases infarct size in many injuries and ischemia diseases such as focal cerebral ischemia. M1 Macrophages are regarded as one of the key inflammatory cells having functions for disease progression. Methods: To investigate the effect of GSRd on renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) and macrophage functional status, and their regulatory role on mouse polarized macrophages in vitro, GSRd (10–100 mg/kg) and vehicle were applied to mice 30 min before renal IRI modeling. Renal functions were reflected by blood serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen level and histopathological examination. M1 polarized macrophages infiltration was identified by flow cytometry analysis and immunofluorescence staining with CD11b+, iNOS+/interleukin-12/tumor necrosis factor-α labeling. For the in vitro study, GSRd (10–100 μg/mL) and vehicle were added in the culture medium of M1 macrophages to assess their regulatory function on polarization phenotype. Results: In vivo data showed a protective role of GSRd at 50 mg/kg on Day 3. Serum level of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen significantly dropped compared with other groups. Reduced renal tissue damage and M1 macrophage infiltration showed on hematoxylin–eosin staining and flow cytometry and immunofluorescence staining confirmed this improvement. With GSRd administration, in vitro cultured M1 macrophages secreted less inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-12 and tumor necrosis factor-α. Furthermore, macrophage polarization-related pancake-like morphology gradually changed along with increasing concentration of GSRd in the medium. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that GSRd possess a protective function against renal ischemia/reperfusion injury via downregulating M1 macrophage polarization

Organic-inorganic hybrid quasi-2D perovskites incorporated with fluorinated additives for efficient and stable four-terminal tandem solar cells

Quasi-two-dimensional (2D) lead halide perovskites have emerged as promising candidates for improving the environmental stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, we report the preparation of a new quasi-2D perovskite by introducing a fluorine-containing additive [3-(trifluoromethyl)benzylammonium iodide (3-TFMBAI)] into Cs0.17FA0.83Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3. The moderate doping of 3-TFMBAI effectively induces the formation of the Ruddlesden-Popper perovskite phase, which can passivate the trap states and restrain the ionic motion in the perovskite lattice. The constructed 3-(trifluoromethyl)benzylamine molecular planes with strong hydrophobicity favorably suppress the decomposition and collapse of the perovskite phase against humidity. Moreover, the introduction of Cs+ and Br- ions tune the bandgap and improve the absorption, crystallinity and thermal stability of the perovskite films. As a result, a champion photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.89% is achieved, along with an improved open-circuit voltage reaching 1.22 V. The quasi-2D PSCs without encapsulation maintain 90.7% of the initial PCE after 1000 h under continuous heating at 60 °C and simultaneous exposure to humid air with a relative humidity of 60%. Four-terminal tandem solar cells are fabricated by combining top semi-transparent quasi-2D PSCs with bottom monocrystalline silicon solar cells, achieving an overall PCE of 23.53% and favorable performance stability

Multi-Repeated Projection Lithography for High-Precision Linear Scale Based on Average Homogenization Effect

A multi-repeated photolithography method for manufacturing an incremental linear scale using projection lithography is presented. The method is based on the average homogenization effect that periodically superposes the light intensity of different locations of pitches in the mask to make a consistent energy distribution at a specific wavelength, from which the accuracy of a linear scale can be improved precisely using the average pitch with different step distances. The method’s theoretical error is within 0.01 µm for a periodic mask with a 2-µm sine-wave error. The intensity error models in the focal plane include the rectangular grating error on the mask, static positioning error, and lithography lens focal plane alignment error, which affect pitch uniformity less than in the common linear scale projection lithography splicing process. It was analyzed and confirmed that increasing the repeat exposure number of a single stripe could improve accuracy, as could adjusting the exposure spacing to achieve a set proportion of black and white stripes. According to the experimental results, the effectiveness of the multi-repeated photolithography method is confirmed to easily realize a pitch accuracy of 43 nm in any 10 locations of 1 m, and the whole length accuracy of the linear scale is less than 1 µm/m