Why a safe approach to self-driving deployment is critical to success

Advanced driver assistance technology and fully autonomous vehicles are officially no longer the stuff of fiction. They’re on our roads today. General Motors pioneered this space in 2017 by launching the world’s first truly hands-free driver assistance technology, Super Cruise. Today, we have parallel paths to get hands-free driving to market for individuals with currently available Super Cruise and soon Ultra Cruise, while pursuing fully autonomous driving through our work with Cruise.  

With fully driverless vehicles now available through ridehail services in the city of San Francisco and the continued expansion of advanced driver assistance systems, it’s increasingly important that we continue to keep safety at the forefront in both ongoing developments in hands-free driving and the future availability of retail AVs. We want to help our customers expand their driving experience with exciting, safe technologies.

You may have read some recent headlines that might cause some to question if these technologies are ready for primetime. For example, a recent Pew Research Center survey reveals that Americans are cautious about the deployment of driverless cars.

At GM, we have developed our advanced driver assistance features with a focus on diligence and safe operation. Similarly, our self-driving goals are tied to our vision of zero crashes. Ultimately, we aim to eliminate human driver error while creating more time and space for what truly matters in life and improving mobility for those who cannot currently drive due to age, disability or other factors.

That’s why we’re laser-focused on testing, validating and improving our hands-free driving technologies to provide our customers with safe features and systems.

This focus is centered on a few key areas:

1. A commitment to testing and validation: These systems either assist drivers, or in fully autonomous setting, perform the driving task and we’re focused first on safe operation and building trust. One of the key advantages in our deployment of hands-free technology is our historical expertise in testing and validation. We’re using both virtual simulations and real-world driving to test, validate and continuously improve Super Cruise and Ultra Cruise to assess as many possible scenarios as we can before this technology reaches customers.
2. Integrating a comprehensive set of sensor technologies: For our driver assistance technologies like Super Cruise, we have multiple sensors working together simultaneously. When Super Cruise is engaged, the vehicle uses real-time cameras, radars and GPS in conjunction with data received from LiDAR mapping to keep the vehicle traveling along the lane path for a hands-free driving experience. These systems work together through “sensor fusion” to create a sensory field around the vehicle that assists in keeping it centered in the lane while elevating the driver’s comfort and convenience. Ultra Cruise will work through a combination of cameras, radars and LiDAR, developing accurate, 360-degree, three-dimensional statistical representations of the environment surrounding vehicles with redundancies in critical areas. Ultra Cruise will also incorporate an integrated LiDAR behind the windshield.
3. Ensuring all systems have driver attention systems: Our industry-first driver attention system tracks the driver’s head position and/or the driver’s gaze and alerts the driver to pay close attention to the road and take control when needed. The driver attention system has a robust series of escalations, both visual and audio, to alert the driver to take control when necessary.
4. Monitoring roads and working with the public sector: Our teams work with local Departments of Transportation to see where there is construction, and to keep our maps fresh.
5. Educating consumers and other stakeholders: Education and training are key to creating comfort and confidence in hands-free vehicle technology. The Ultra Cruise app, for example, which is currently in development, will be viewable from inside the parked vehicle and will offer information like driver’s statistics, trips and history to the user.

Because safety is our focus, we’re investing significant time and resources to help ensure our features work safely before we go to market with these technologies. Our approach is working—we continue to scale access to advanced driver assistance technology, with Super Cruise reaching more than 34 million hands-free miles (and counting). We also continue to evaluate data, refine our technologies and evolve to ensure that not only are we making the hands-free experience even better over time, but also making the technology work as it should before it reaches our customers.

We want to generate consumer excitement that’s built on trust while working with key policymakers, community leaders and customers to help educate people about these technologies.

I’m so excited for you to see what General Motors is doing to incorporate #safedeployment into everything we do—from driver assistance to autonomous driving programs—in our commitment to unlock success and safety for all drivers. Check out more on GM’s AV ambitions in my conversation with Joe White in May.

#driverless #thefutureisAV #safeoperation #safeAVdeployment