Motor Trend http://www.motortrend.com/news/gm-super-cruise-2018-cadillac-ct6-with-auto-pilot/ reports that Cadillac will offer self-driving as an option starting this fall. The first few paragraphs from the article include:
What is it? The rebirth of full-on Autopilot, which Tesla Model S and X owners enjoyed for a little while before a back-seat “driver” died in a crash despite receiving seven warnings from the car to resume control and the lawyers shut down that party. That system was never intended to, you know, actually be an “auto pilot,” and this one’s automatic piloting is considerably more restrictive than Tesla’s cowboy over-the-air upgraded system. It’s also fully vetted by what surely by now must be the jitteriest and most conservative lawyers in all of autodom.
- Highways only. The system only becomes available once you’ve entered a meticulously lidar-mapped, divided, limited-access highway in the U.S. or Canada—or a limited-access stretch of a highway that switches between on-ramps and crossings (like California Highway 101). When the steering wheel icon appears at the upper right of the central speedometer gauge, press the Super Cruise button, and when the car has locked on to the center of the lane, the light bar on the top of the steering wheel turns green.
- Pay attention. Infrared emitters on the top quadrant of the steering wheel illuminate the driver’s head and face, and a steering column–mounted camera with infrared capability (for night detection) constantly monitors head position and eye focal point. Look away for 15 seconds or less, and the system demands you return your gaze to the road by first flashing the green light, then flashing red, sounding a tone, vibrating the seat, and ultimately issuing a voice warning. If none of that succeeds in returning the driver to the task of controlling the vehicle, it will slow to a stop in the lane of travel, put the hazard flashers on, and summon help via OnStar. If you get to those last stages and resume control, Super Cruise locks you out until the next time you stop and restart the car. A nice touch: capacitive sensors detect the driver’s hand(s) on the wheel, eliminating the need to wiggle it to verify control as with some lane keep assist vehicles.
Many more details in TFA. But it's laden with trackers (according to Privacy Badger).
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @08:44PM (4 children)
The car automatically calls the cops if a nigger tries to drive it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @09:27PM (1 child)
While I think you are a troll, here goes anyway...
On the contrary, one sign of having made it in the 'hood is to drive a Caddy (or other luxury brand). You can bet that GM knows who their customers are.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @10:30PM
Limited edition pimpmobile alerts the owner if one of the bitches tries to steal it. Doesn't call the cops like the regular edition, because you know papa pimp can't afford to go to the police.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @09:35PM (1 child)
So the officer won't need to ask you if you were aware of how fast you were going above the speed limit, or if you were talking on a cell phone at the time he clocked you.
OnStar - We're there for you... and the authorities.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Sunday August 06 2017, @04:21PM
Next: Speed trap towns have speeding, changing lanes without a turn signal, brake light out, reckless driving combined tickets challenged by telemetry, 360 degree video and GPS records.
I doubt they'll give up that windfall cash easily.
Think they'll start impounding the vehicles and destroy the computer like the way witness camera/cell phone videos are handled? Will they need a stingray to prevent the Onstar system from uploading the data via 4G?
I guess they could get creative and ban self driving cars with asset forfeiture the penalty so they just seize the car. They'd be stopped by state or federal authorities eventually, but that takes time and in the meantime they'll be wiping and auctioning cars.
Use adversarial images for the speed limit signs per the other story today? Maybe put them in faux construction zones so they have an excuse for constantly moving speed limit signs thus preventing the car from having them programmed in.
What do you think they'll do? Just giving up the cash seems unlikely.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @09:15PM (2 children)
You shouldn't need to have hands on the steering wheel or pay attention. Transitioning to human control should only happen when the vehicle is stopped.
Proper: The vehicle stops, either due to software confusion or due to driver request. If a human wants to control the vehicle, then the car verifies that the driver is mentally alert, perhaps by demanding answers to a few easy calculus problems. If the driver is not alert and the software is too confused to continue, call for remote help.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @09:24PM (1 child)
> a few easy calculus problems
Yeah, right. Might as well take away the steering wheel and pedals, no one (except a very few) will pass this test.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 06 2017, @04:22AM
Well good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @09:26PM (1 child)
... when it's a crap semi-auto. If it's not full automatic without needing my attention, then i don't even want a feature like that. Not that i would buy a Cadillac, i'll never be able to afford a new one anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 05 2017, @09:35PM
I believe that this system meets Level 3 of the SAE levels defined for self driving--
> Conditional Automation
> The driving mode-specific performance by an automated driving system of all aspects of the dynamic driving task with the expectation that the human driver will respond appropriately to a request to intervene.
Google cache copy of the pdf here,
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L1EFhwdg7fAJ:https://www.sae.org/misc/pdfs/automated_driving.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us [googleusercontent.com]
Or download the PDF directly from the link on the cache page to read Levels 0 (none) through 5 (no steering wheel needed).
In a few years this will be cheap enough that GM will spread it down to their other brands (Buick, Chevy) as an option. A few years after that it will be on the used car that you can afford.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by theluggage on Saturday August 05 2017, @09:55PM (5 children)
If it was possible to ensure that such idiots only killed themselves then it could be left to Darwin - unfortunately it was just luck that stopped others getting hurt.
...and how long before drivers learn to "zone out" with their eyes pointing at the road but their brains off with the fairies, because they're bored stiff from an hour or two of enforced inactivity? If you have to sit with your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road then you might as well bloody well drive and keep your brain occupied. Perhaps it would be better to have the driver driving and the AI - which won't get bored and become engrossed in the Harry Potter audiobook - monitoring their driving (which already happens in many new cars)?
That's the problem with self drive - if it needs the full attention of the driver to stop it screwing up then it isn't self drive.
...thus replacing one traffic hazard with another. Brilliant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 06 2017, @12:04AM (1 child)
> thus replacing one traffic hazard with another. Brilliant.
This does sound dumb. Look for an upgrade somewhere in the near future that pulls off on the shoulder, assuming that there is a shoulder on that stretch of road.
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Sunday August 06 2017, @02:44AM
Ooo, I want to follow one up a mountain road here in Colorado.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 06 2017, @01:34AM (2 children)
What's the point...?
The point is marketing. Many people with money to burn and little technical understanding will want these, if only to impress their friends. Nevertheless, this R&D may bring us closer to real autonomous driving, although I could also imagine Waymo people getting fed up and frustrated by all of these pretenders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 06 2017, @01:54AM (1 child)
WaymoMercedes people getting fed up and frustrated by all of these pretendersFTFY
Mercedes has had self driving experiments going on since the late 1990s, Wayme/Google (with Stanford input) is quite a bit newer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 06 2017, @05:32PM
Ahh yes, like that German guy who "invented" the computer. What was his name again?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by fakefuck39 on Sunday August 06 2017, @01:58PM
>you know, actually be an “auto pilot,”
Well, I've always figured the people who are into cars are complete morons. It's a real gem to find someone though who has never heard of the term "autopilot" - something very well defined and used in aviation and common language for oh just about a hundred years. If the guy wasn't sure what the term meant, there's always wikipaedobear where I'm sure it defines the term in the first few phrases. I wonder if the guy talking about cars here actually has a license to drive - I don't believe you can get one if you're a drooling retard with the same IQ as your velcro shoes.