Cadillac brought in a new model car equipped with driving support system "Super Cruise" to battle existing semi-automatic driving vehicle

While automakers around the world are working on the development of automatic driving technology, the US luxury car brand Cadillac is a luxury car "CT 6" to be released in 2017, a driving support system with high autonomous driving ability "Super CruiseWe plan to make it appear as optional equipment.

Cadillac takes aim at Tesla's Autopilot with 'hands-free' Super Cruise technology, available this fall - The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/10/15224516/cadillac-super-cruise-hands-free-ct6-tesla-autopilot

Super Cruise makes it possible to autonomously operate based on the camera and various sensors and the topography data of the road acquired in advance and made into a database and at the same time detects the attention state of the driver and enables safe driving It is a system to do. It is planned to be marketed as option equipment of the 2018 model "CT 6" that will appear in the autumn of 2017, and will be sold as "Luxury" grade with a vehicle price of $ 62,290 (about 7.2 million yen) and $ 85,290 (about 9.3 million yen) "Platinum" grades will be available for installation. (However, with "luxury" grade it is necessary to add "driver assist package" separately $ 3100 (about 340,000 yen))

Cadillac sees that the use of enormous road mapping data by the laser topography measuring device "LIDAR" as a major feature of other companies. Super Cruise, on the road where data was acquired by LIDARonlyIt enables autonomous driving, and it can not use the function in other places. On the other hand, Tesla also suggests that the use of the autopilot is limited to the expressway on the expressway, but in fact it can be used in all places. The place where Super Cruise can actually be used is restricted to the highway where data was already acquired, but Cadillac seems to regard this point as a merit in terms of safety, and it is a kind of "GeoFence" It can be used as a restriction function like that.


However, even if detailed data is taken with LIDAR, lanes are often regulated by road repair work. In order to respond to such itself, Cadillac periodically refers to the construction information database released by the Ministry of Transportation, and if there is a construction or change, it will cause the measuring vehicle to go out and obtain the latest information We are in a system. The data acquired in this way is scheduled to be updated on Super Cruise equipped vehicles at the annual pace of OTA (over-the-air: via wireless communication). Sensing using cameras, of course, seems to be done, but it seems that it can be said that judging whether the update frequency is sufficient or not can be said to be a judgment split.

In this system Cadillac is aiming not to "Level 4 (fully autonomous operation)" as a goal of Google's umbrella Waymo and Uber aims, but to the end it is the operation at "level 1" belonging to driving support . Also, since the limitation of restricting the operation to the highway is added, it can be considered that the hurdle towards realization is relatively low.

The operation at level 1 means that the subject of driving is a human driver. Therefore, in Cadillac, in addition to detecting the direction of the face by monitoring the state of the face of the driver with the infrared sensor in order to prevent the driver's attention becoming distracted, it also detects the degree of opening of the eyelids and falls asleep Sensing for nothing. It is possible to detect the state of the driver's eyelids even when wearing sunglasses with UV cut.


And, if the driver falls asleep or disconnects his / her eyes from the road for more than 30 seconds, flashes the LED lamp built in the upper part of the handle ......


It is said that it incorporates a mechanism that gives vibration to the seatbelt and calls attention of the driver.


In this way, Super Cruise as the role of assisting the driver's driving mainly, there is a problem with these systems including systems of other companies "how to deal with drivers not responding" around I will. Even if the driver loses mind during driving, although it is possible to run without departing from the lane if it is the automatic operation of Level 1, the operation which stops at a safe place of the shoulder while operating the steering wheel You can not. Therefore, the possibility that surrounding drivers get involved in accidents is enough. Mercedes-Benz is planning to introduce vehicles equipped with a system that can stop safely in such a case in 2017, but since Cadillac's Super Cruise does not have the data of the shoulder, he should know where to stop at It is said that judgment can not be done.

Even if the driver loses mind, while continuing driving in accordance with the surroundings for a while will reduce the risk of accidents, it can be said that it is much safer than nothing, but still a complete automatic operation In a situation that has not reached yet. David Caldwell, Cadillac's product communications manager, said, "In recognition of the fact that there is nothing in the history that anything can deal with drivers who are completely unresponsive So, if you think "Let's stop the car", it will be wonderful. A car that did the same thing does not exist so far. Drivers that remain unresponsive will exist anywhere in the world at any time. I only wish for good luck. "