Cadillac News: Cadillac's Super Cruise Finally Arrives for 2018 CT6

[William Maley]

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The long-delayed Cadillac Super Cruise system will be arriving as an option for the 2018 CT6 this fall. Described as "the industry’s first true hands-free driving technology for the highway,"(Tesla would argue otherwise) Super Cruise combines the driver assistance features currently on the CT6, along with a driver attention system and LiDAR-based mapping data.

Unlike other systems that monitor forces on the steering wheel to see if the driver is paying attention, Super Cruise uses a camera mounted on the steering column to monitor a driver's head position and movement. If it detects the driver has turned their head away from the road, the system will issue an alert to have the driver bring their eyes back to the road via a light bar on the steering wheel and then the safety alert system. If the driver fails to do this, Super Cruise will bring the car to a stop and call OnStar “if necessary.”

As for the "LiDAR-based mapping data", this scan of limited-access highways in the U.S. and Canada is paired with an improved GPS system, real-time cameras, and sensors to determine whether or not the system can come on, along with keeping the vehicle on the road.

“American drivers travel twice as many miles on urban and suburban highways as they do on rural roads. Super Cruise™ allows hands-free driving and operates only within the environment where it has the most benefit. While it is technically possible for the technology to drive hands-free on other kinds of streets and roads, we feel strongly that this targeted approach is the best to build consumer and regulatory confidence and enthusiasm for advanced mobility,” said Barry Walkup, chief engineer for the system.

Source: Cadillac
Press Release is on Page 2

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[Drew Dowdell]

The holdup is mostly in the legal department.

[G. David Felt]

I am excited from a tech standpoint to try this out and see how it works.

[smk4565]

Hands free for how long?  You can drive an E-class "hands free" for about 45 seconds before it wants hands on the wheel again.

[balthazar]

2 hours ago, smk4565 said:

You can drive an E-class "hands free" for about 45 seconds before it wants hands on the wheel again.

What the F is the everlovin' point of that??

[smk4565]

31 minutes ago, balthazar said:

What the F is the everlovin' point of that??

Well that is why I want to know how long Super Cruise is.  Plus it is highway only.  These current "autonomous" drive systems are really just crash avoidance nannies which are good for safety, but aren't really "self driving."  Freightliner has a level 3 autonomous truck on Nevada roads now.  But the real finish line is when you can get in a car, type in a destination and it just goes there.  

[balthazar]

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

Well that is why I want to know how long Super Cruise is.

Why? You're not a Cadillac consumer.

[smk4565]

8 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Why? You're not a Cadillac consumer.

Because I am interested in autonomous car technology, even though I like driving and would prefer to drive myself.  I also think it would be really neat to have a car that you could drive to the airport and then have it drive itself back home and park itself in the garage.  Pushing the limits of technology interests me.

[G. David Felt]

Would be cool for my parents who really should not be driving and will not listen to me or my sisters.

[ccap41]

I guess with them requiring you to be paying attention at all times... what's the point?

[balthazar]

Fairly damning review (vs. common perception / expectation) of Tesla's AP :

http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-autopilot-no-way-drive-car-itself-2016-7

[Drew Dowdell]

Interesting about the camera that watches to see if you're looking.  I could see someone getting into their fully autonomously driving car, programming a destination 300 miles away (on a full tank of gas), starting off on their trip, and then having an aneurysm.  The car keeps on driving to its destination for the next 4 hours with a dead body in the driver seat... 

Grandkids looking out the window... "Oh yay! Grandpa is here! We see him pulling up!"

You get to imagine the rest....

[frogger]

3 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Grandkids looking out the window... "Oh yay! Grandpa is here! We see him pulling up!"

You get to imagine the rest....

So they get to keep the car?

 

[smk4565]

3 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Interesting about the camera that watches to see if you're looking.  I could see someone getting into their fully autonomously driving car, programming a destination 300 miles away (on a full tank of gas), starting off on their trip, and then having an aneurysm.  The car keeps on driving to its destination for the next 4 hours with a dead body in the driver seat... 

Grandkids looking out the window... "Oh yay! Grandpa is here! We see him pulling up!"

You get to imagine the rest....

Shouldn't the car detect the incapacitated driver and drive itself to the nearest hospital?

[balthazar]

One day, when either Spacely Sprockets or Cogswell Cogs invents the fully autonomous, quadruple-amputee operable, brainwave-reading, medically-trained flying aerocar, we'll have the answer.

[Drew Dowdell]

34 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Shouldn't the car detect the incapacitated driver and drive itself to the nearest hospital?

In the Cadillac, it pulls the car over and calls OnStar.

[oldshurst442]

Well, even Jedis using the force actually do all the driving and flying themselves, and they also have an R2 unit computing all the stuff it needs to compute as a co-pilot...

This is how I view full autonomous driving:

Either it will be the best thing since slice bread sometime in the near or very far future or will be humanity's greatest disaster in history both in economic terms of embarrassingly tons and tons of money wasted in epic proportions of bankruptcy failures and in disastrous accidents in holocaustic levels of mass human extinctions ...

Time will tell.

The rise or fall of this 'saving from ourselves' technology will make for an epic Hollywood movie sometime.

 

Edited April 12, 2017 by oldshurst442

[oldshurst442]

My post above seems like Im against this technology.

Well...yes and no.

As long as humans can have the option of driving themselves Im all for it.

And Im for it because most humans dont have the mental strength to be 100% focused at all times to drive safely...and humans also lose brain and reflex power as they age. So 100% full autonomous tech does have a place in our human evolution...