GM wants autonomous driving by 2015
Self-driving vehicles could improve safety and driver comfort
- Published in News.
Look no hands: Camera and GPS data would enable vehicles to stay in lane, even in curves
GM believes autonomous driving systems could be ready by 2015. The firm expects the technology – which is calls supercruise – to appear first in Cadillac luxury sedans.
Letting the vehicle take care of accelerating, braking and steering under certain conditions can help to improve safety and driver confort by relieving workload and fatigue on long-distance driving or in heavy traffic.
John Capp, GM's director of global active safety electronics and innovation, said: “The primary goal of our autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle development is safety. In the coming years, autonomous driving systems paired with advanced safety systems could help eliminate the crash altogether by intervening on behalf of drivers before they’re even aware of a hazardous situation. More than ever, consumers will be able to trust their car to do the right thing.”
Adaptive cruise control systems already take care of longitudinal dynamics but adding steering control to take care of lateral dynamics means that the vehicle could, effectively, drive itself. Data from cameras used for lane-keeping systems combined with GPS road data would enable the vehicle to predict and follow curves in the road and to stay in the centre of the lane.
The limit of the technology is that road markings can be poor or missing altogether – in either case an autonomous system would not be able to manage the steering function for the driver.
Sense and sensibility: Cadillac XTS sedan already has the full set of radar, camera and ultrasonic sensors required
