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Steve Kealy2 Jul 2012
NEWS

Cadillac working on hands-off car

Forget the hands-free phone – Cadillac says hands-free driving is just around the corner.

Google’s “driverless car” may have got there first, but Cadillac will offer its hands-off adaptive cruise control on one or more American model lines as soon as next year, according to one high-ranking executive.


At the Driverless Car Summit in Detroit recently, Gary Smyth, executive director of General Motor's Science laboratories – that’s the company's R&D arm - said the "SuperCruise" function shown earlier this year would be something "we will be introducing in the near term."


The GM SuperCruise system is a long way from the conventional cruise control that merely seeks to maintain a constant speed up and down hill. With more electronics, high-end adaptive systems have added automatic braking if the car gets too close to an object ahead, but SuperCruise adds elements of lane-departure or lane centring systems already available to provide a hands-off automated driving system.


Lane centring uses technology already used for Lane Departure Correction systems offered on several luxury brands. Those systems automatically steer a car back into its lane if it drifts over a lane divider.


The difference between lane departure and lane-centring is that lane centring operates continuously, rather than intermittently, to keep the car in its lane.


Amalgamating adaptive cruise control and lane centring is an example of what GM calls "sensor fusion," in which signals from cameras, radar, and ultrasonic systems are integrated to give the vehicle a more complete picture of what is happening around it.


As a result of this accumulation of data sources, the car's ability to respond more quickly than a human driver could is improved. A logical progression is the addition of external data sources to warn of situations ahead, such as traffic jams, which could be coupled to adaptive GPS to calculate – and execute – a more efficient route to the destination.


The SuperCruise system represents the next step toward true electronically-augmented driving which progresses beyond simple cruise control as follows:


‘Feet Off’: Adaptive cruise control, which controls both accelerator and brake;


‘Hands Off’: Adds lane centring to keep the car within its lane;


‘Eyes Off’: Vehicle drives itself, avoiding obstacles and reacting to safety hazards;


‘People Out’: Vehicle can drive itself to a given point without occupants.


Speakers at the Driverless Car Summit cautioned that while "Hands Off" driving will be feasible within a few years, "Eyes Off" operation - where the driver gives responsibility for safe driving to the vehicle - remains a lot further away.


If nothing else, legislation will need to be revised to determine the responsibilities – and even the definition – of a “driver” in a vehicle capable of autonomous operation. Each country’s laws would inevitably differ and dictate the level of human input required – or permitted.


For example, a system like SuperCruise simply couldn’t be sold today in Germany, according to Luca Delgrossi, director of driver assistance programs at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development in the US.


However, an enhanced adaptive cruise-control system that removes the need for steering input would probably be welcomed by American long-distance drivers who regularly tackle 12-hour Interstate trips.


Could Cadillac beat traditional safety-technology gurus Mercedes-Benz and Volvo in offering a commercially viable hands-free automotive safety system?


Picture © General Motors




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Written bySteve Kealy
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