[AutonomousVehicles] GM reveals Ultra Cruise ‘hands-free’ system that covers ‘95 percent’ of driving scenarios

[Cornelius Butler]

Hi Everyone,
As promised I wanted to get you some info on major announcements from
today's GM Investor Day. GM has revealed Ultra Cruise, its next generation
autonomous driving technology that is says can drive autonomously in 95
percent of all driving conditions. Below is an article and text about this.

Article Link:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/6/22712566/gm-ultra-cruise-adas-hands-free-driving

Article Text:
GM reveals Ultra Cruise ‘hands-free’ system that covers ‘95 percent’ of
driving scenarios
10
‘Ultra Cruise eventually can be used on every paved road in the US and
Canada’

By Andrew J. Hawkins at andyjayhawk  Oct 6, 2021, 12:00pm EDT

After years of teases, General Motors is finally pulling the curtain back
on its next-generation “hands-free” driver-assist technology.

Dubbed Ultra Cruise, the new system uses sensors like cameras, radars, and
lidar to control a vehicle’s steering, acceleration, and braking. GM says
the system can be used on 2 million miles of paved roads and in “95
percent” of driving scenarios. Though which vehicles will get Ultra Cruise
is still a mystery; GM says it will be available in a handful of premium
vehicles in 2023, though the automaker wouldn’t disclose specific models.

The news was announced as part of GM’s two-day annual investor event, in
which GM also revealed its plan to double revenues by 2030 as it seeks to
become a software company in addition to making cars.

GM’s first-generation advanced driver-assist system (ADAS), Super Cruise,
has been praised as a safer, more capable version of Tesla’s Autopilot,
thanks to its camera-based driver monitoring system that ensures drivers
keep their eyes on the road. GM says Super Cruise will “co-exist” with
Ultra Cruise, with the former available in more “mainstream” vehicles,
while the latter is reserved for GM’s luxury models. GM wouldn’t comment on
the price customers will be expected to pay to add Ultra Cruise as an
option on their vehicles.

Super Cruise, which debuted in 2017 in the Cadillac CT6 sedan, is capable
of completely hands-free driving across more than 200,000 miles of divided
highway across North America. It compares the vehicle’s position, taken
from both GPS and onboard cameras, to its location in a lidar map collected
by GM. Once the vehicle knows where it is and that it’s safe to activate,
Super Cruise will take over both steering and acceleration.

By comparison, Ultra Cruise will be much more capable. GM said the system
will cover “more than” 2 million miles of paved roads in the US and Canada
at launch, with the capacity to grow up to more than 3.4 million miles.

In a call with reporters, GM President Mark Reuss said Ultra Cruise would
be able to handle “urban and rural” roads, in addition to stop signs,
traffic signals, and other complexities that Super Cruise is currently
unable to detect. “Ultra Cruise will do this in a slower environment, urban
life as well,” Reuss said. “And again, we’ll have the maps out there to do
over 2 million miles, moving to three and a half.”

Jason Ditman, chief engineer at GM, elaborated on Ultra Cruise’s
capabilities. “Drivers will be able to travel hands-free across nearly
every paved road, including city streets, subdivision streets, and rural
paved roads,” Ditman said.

Ditman described Ultra Cruise as a “route following feature” that maintains
headways and follows the speed limit. Ultra Cruise will also support
automatic and on-demand lane changes, left and right hand turns, avoid
close objects, and enable parking in residential driveways

Ultra Cruise-enabled vehicles will come equipped with lidar, which
historically is rare for production vehicles thanks to the high costs
associated with the laser sensor. “The sensing architecture is all new,”
Ditman said. “There are additional cameras and radars, and we are adding
lidar to the vehicle.”

Ultra Cruise won’t be able to handle every driving scenario. Ditman gave
the example of a roundabout as a type of complex road condition that the
ADAS will not be able to navigate. A light bar in the steering wheel will
communicate to the driver when they need to control, sending signals
through escalating lights and haptic feedback. A voice assistant will also
inform the driver when they need to take the wheel.

GM relied on lidar-scanned high-definition maps for Super Cruise, but
Ditman said it wasn’t practical to map all 2 million miles of road for
Ultra Cruise. “We do rely on similar map data,” he said. “However, we have
a larger number of sensors that also observe the roads so when we combine
the map accuracy with what our sensors see of the road geometry and the
road markings, we’re still able to accurately place ourselves and drive the
right nominal path.”

Despite its enhanced capabilities, GM says it still considers Ultra Cruise
a Level 2 system, as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers. At
Level 2, the vehicle can control both steering and acceleration and
deceleration, as well as monitor blind spots and even change lanes
automatically. But it falls short of full autonomy because a human sits in
the driver’s seat and can take control of the car at any time

Level 2 systems aren’t infallible. Notably, Alphabet’s Waymo abandoned its
plans to develop a Level 2 ADAS after determining that a fully autonomous
system would be far safer. And certain automakers’ advanced
driver-assistance systems often fail when driving into sharper curves,
according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The federal government is paying more attention to ADAS, recently
announcing that automakers would be required to report incidents involving
driver assistance and autonomous systems within one day of learning of a
crash.
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