Cadillac, the luxury automobile and SUV division of US automaker General Motors (GM), has started the public road-testing of Super Cruise system, its semi-automated vehicle technology.
The carmaker is anticipating deploying the technology into production models later the current decade.
Aimed at enabling semi-automated driving including hands-off lane following, braking and speed control under certain driving conditions, the system still requires driver's attention as it will have operational limitations as per external factors such as traffic, weather and visibility of lane markings.
GM Global Active Safety Electronics and Innovation director John Capp said Super Cruise is designed to give the driver the ability of hands-free driving when the system determines it is safe to do so.
"Before we introduce this capability on a production vehicle we must put the system through rigorous testing and technology refinement," Capp said.
During the trials, the Super Cruise test vehicles are incorporated with a fusion of radar, ultrasonic sensors, cameras and GPS map data that are integrated into the prototypes for a near-production appearance.
Super Cruise R&D manager Jeremy Salinger said technology trials allow exposing the updated system to different environments.
"The best way to achieve reliable performance is to gather as much data as possible in the conditions our customers will experience," Salinger said.
The semi-automated driving capability incorporates lane-centering technology that relies on forward-looking cameras to identify lane markings and other sensors to detect curves and other characteristics of the road.
Additionally, the technology uses a series of warnings to communicate with the driver derived from human factors research performed on test tracks and in GM R&D's 360-degree motion-based driving simulator.
Cadillac has already incorporated the building block technologies for Super Cruise on the new 2013 XTS and ATS sedans.
