Cadillac News: Cadillac's CEO Has Some Strong Words On Self-Driving Vehicles

[William Maley]

The past year has seen autonomous vehicles making headlines with a number of technology companies such as Google and Apple working on their own vehicles. But Cadillac CEO Johan de Nysschen says autonomous vehicles shouldn't take away the act of driving to those who enjoy it.

 

“Autonomous driving and driving passion must co-exist,” de Nysschen said to a group at the 10th annual J.D Power Automotive Marketing Roundtable in Las Vegas last week.

 

“We’re after balance.”

 

Standing in front of a picture of Google's autonomous prototype, de Nysschen said, “Many autonomous car (prototypes) emphasize sheer functionality. It would be a mind-numbing experience going from point A to B. My goodness, you might as well take the bus.”

 

GM's plan with autonomous vehicles is to develop ones “enhance the joy of driving, but eliminate the tedious parts," such as the hassle of stop-and-go rush hour explain de Nysschen. An example brought was the upcoming semi-autonomous Super Cruise system that will debut on the 2017 CT6 and CTS.

 

“The difference between Super Cruise and fully autonomous lies more in the legal than the technical arena. I’ll leave it at that,” said de Nysschen.

 

Source: Wards Auto

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[G. David Felt]

I like his thinking, keep the auto enjoyable to drive but also allow it to to semi auto when you are in heavy stop n go traffic. Be interesting to see how this works out.

 

More interesting is how people accept or handle this and when an accident happens and if they think it is GM's fault or their own.

 

Someone I can see decides to put it on cruze and takes a nap and wakes up in a wreck and says this is GM's fault.

 

Not a fan of all these self protection idiot features.

 

If you do not want to be a responsible driver, than take the bus, uber, taxi, etc.

[Suaviloquent]

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I'm getting the message that this new Super Cruise will be fully automous capable right out of box.

 

That would be great as people would only need an over the air update to enable it, espcially years after the legal hurdles facing these technologies get sorted.

[Drew Dowdell]

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I'm getting the message that this new Super Cruise will be fully automous capable right out of box.

 

That would be great as people would only need an over the air update to enable it, espcially years after the legal hurdles facing these technologies get sorted.

 

By the description of what SuperCruise does, it would have to be fully autonomous capable.  It sounds like it is the legal department holding things up. 

 

SuperCruise can drive for you in heavy traffic situations and can drive for you on an open highway.   To do either of those things, all the hardware that fully autonomous requires would need to be already in place . 

[hyperv6]

This deal I fear is not a matter of if but when one of these cars F up.

 

How will the system and companies deal with it once it does?

We have auto pilots and all sorts of pilot assist modes but yet planes still crash. We have safety's on guns yet people still shoot themselves. We have some of the most advanced GPS but yet it still recalculated to a empty field. We have guided missiles yet they still miss their targets at times.

 

Like the old joke of the guy who bought the camper that had cruise control and set it then walked to the back of the RV before it crashed. [Not sure it really happened but I have seen worse mistakes] I suspect that there will be issues and this whole deal can really change the whole program.

 

Like flying cars a Idea that just has too many variables and then you mix in human and mechanical or electrical error.

 

Hell I had a battery go bad in one car driving it. The car started to shut down systems. like the lights, Radio and even the Speedometer stopped working. The car did keep running but that was about it. Lights flashing and bells dinging we made it home even though it sounded like a 777 going down.

 

As of now I have a Collision system in my GMC that is worthless with so many false signals. The lane control works if you are on wide road but back roads it goes off all the time when the road is narrow, The collision alert goes off with false signals with curves and road side objects. It can scare the hell out of you as the ABS presets and the alarm and lights go off when nothing is around.

 

I know these are advanced system but I just expect things will not be as smooth as the automakers think.

Even the self parking misses now and then as it is now. 
 

[Suaviloquent]

Yes, the quintessential issue lies with who's at fault when a system breaks down. BTW, I'm not really for self-driving, so a balance seems like a good deal.

 

No systems will ever be perfect. But that still means less people will die or crash severity will be reduced. So many ethical perspectives, like an economic one.

 

What are the economic benefits? - Not only for automakers, but think about it. Less traffic jams. Less lost time, countless other things.

 

Are all markets fully competitive? - You can bet these will be driven downwards in price. In the last few years we've seen technology migrate really quickly. 3-4 years, and we're going to see this in mass-market segments. 

 

Are all customers fully informed? - Nope. It's a work in progress, but there are incentives at play here for all players at the table.

 

Have all external and internal costs been fully included? There's a potential that every system could degenerate over the service life of the vehicle. Potentially every vehicle with this technology could be affected. In this sense, internalizing all the costs would prove this prohibitive.

 

We could also go to the different frameworks, such as consequentialist and non-consequentialist theories about self-driving cars. Utility? Virtue? Rights? Fairness? Categorical Imperatives? 

 

I think it's such an exciting ethical issue, for autos... 

[Drew Dowdell]

So here's a question about self driving cars:  Can it recognize a road closure?  What happens if your maps are out of date?

 

Here in Pittsburgh, one street was suddenly switched from 2 way to 1 way with one lane converted into a bike lane.  Even with instant update Google Maps, it would take a few days for that change to be reflected in the Google Map ecosystem.   Does your Benz just plow into the bike lane until you get a map update?

[hyperv6]

Recalculate!! Recalculate!!!!!!!!