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Cadillac's Hands-Free Driving Option Also Nags Inattentive Drivers (theverge.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the red-lights-in-the-steering-wheel dept.

Using LIDAR sensors, Cadillac mapped 160,000 miles of U.S. highways "within five centimeters of accuracy" to give its hands-free-on-the-highway cars the ability to better anticipate the roads ahead -- and to know when a human driver should take over. An anonymous reader writes: "The car can see farther than the sensors on the car with the map..." says the chief engineer for Cadillac's new "Super Cruise" hands-free driving option for highways, "so if we have a sharp curve, we can anticipate that." The system also gives Cadillac's vehicles a safety check not available to Tesla, which can't stop drivers from using Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot even when they're not on a highway. "We know where the car is because of the LIDAR map and the other data in the car," says a product communications manager at Cadillac. "Therefore we have the ability to geofence it."

In addition, The Verge reports that if drivers look away for more than 30 seconds, "the car will know thanks to an infrared camera attached to the top of the steering column. Eyes closed? The car will know and start a sequence of alerts to get the driver's focus back on the road. It can even see through UV-blocking sunglasses." While the camera doesn't record or store data, it will flash a strip of red LED lights embedded in the top of the steering wheel "if the driver is caught not paying attention."
Cadillac plans to create and transmit an updated map every year, and will also regularly update its map by "constantly" checking the database from the Transportation Department, and deploying own trucks to draw new maps of construction areas.

11 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Mega Accident Waiting to Happen by DatbeDank · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm waiting for the day these half assed self driving car systems cause a massive accident and some politician responds with some poor knee jerk "ban 'em" response. It's only a matter of time.

    A self driving car system where I have to pay attention while doing nothing is the worst aspect of these features.

    1. Re:Mega Accident Waiting to Happen by stephanruby · · Score: 2

      Me, I'm waiting for the nanny-supervised driving system.

      My car already won't show me my texts unless I'm at 0 mph. It's only a matter of time before my car figures out that I drive like a douche and forces me to pull over and calls a taxi for me.

    2. Re:Mega Accident Waiting to Happen by rtb61 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yep, well, having enjoyed :| early retirement because some idiot paid more attention to a mobile phone and that green light was for going straight ahead and not turning right into on coming traffic. Well, who knew you could get concussion of the spinal cord which makes you temporarily quadriplegic, oh well, concussion kept it at a distinct mental distance, whilst those minutes ticked by, so it wasn't that bad. What can I say but bring on the nanny state on roads, now, do not delay, in fact do it yesterday and any idiot that cheats, let them 'enjoy' :| and extended custodial sentence

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re:Mega Accident Waiting to Happen by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Thats the real danger, If we just didnt allow people to get a license until theyre 25, and give it up at 60, The roads would be much safer.

      Not really. At this point you're already looking at diminishing returns because it tramples on opportunity for experience. A 25 year old who hasn't done much driving is going to be more dangerous than the 25 year old who's been driving since he was 16. At 60, you're giving up a lot of experience just to remove the risk of slightly retarded reflexes. At 75-80+, you might have a case.

      Life is about risk. At some point we enter not-worth-living status if the final say on all activity is the mob's knee jerk perception of relative safety.

      I am constantly on my phone while driving. but i dont tailgate, i pay attention when driving even while looking at or using my phone. and if it takes more than a half a second to try to see what i need i either wait or pull over and do it. I have been driving service work since i was 16, every day.. didnt get a license until i was 21. I have never been in a car accident. *knock on wood*

      I see so you one of those "it applies to everyone but me" types. When 'you' are talking on the phone, 'you' aren't distracted, it's only when everyone else does it. When 'you' drive without a license between the ages of 16 and 21, 'you' aren't doing anything wrong, yet you imply other 16yos shouldn't be on the road with or without licenses.

      Fucking christ, the level of cognitive dissonance required for this level of hypocrisy... Put the fucking phone away while you're driving.

    4. Re:Mega Accident Waiting to Happen by stephanruby · · Score: 2

      Im in vegas, You wont believe how many times old people, and not to sound racist but asians also, stopping in the MIDDLE of intersections, for seemingly no reason,

      If you're in Las Vegas, I can believe it.

      Tourists take pictures and tourists get lost. Not to mention, some will talk on their phone while driving.

  2. Mapping vs real-time by MrLogic17 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think Tesla's "on the fly" approach is the right one long term. If Caddy is depending on historical saved maps, any change at all will be a serious challenge. Road construction, parade barriers, broken down vehicles, etc. You can't rely on what a road was yesterday.

    And yearly updates? That alone tells me Cadillac doesn't get it. Tesla's algorithm updates, what, every 2 weeks or so - with major car OS updates very few months. And Cadillac thinks that a yearly map update (probably only for 2 or 3 years) is going to make them competitive. That's cute.

    1. Re:Mapping vs real-time by MrLogic17 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I dunno. I can buy a Tesla today with a pretty good auto-pilot that works now. Traditional car companies have, um, cruise control? Beeping if a car is in my blind spot?

      Everyone who's anyone SAYS they have a group working on autonomous driving. Your pay-walled link (hidden nested behind 2 layers of fluffy blogs) doesn't seem to be based on anything but R&D department press releases.

      I welcome the idea of multiple competent approaches to the problem - but I stand by my original post. Humans can drive just fine without memorizing roads to within millimeters. We drive by figuring out the road as we come to it. Makes sense for technology to use a flexible approach like that as well.

      In the original article, the Cadillac rep seems to be bragging that their system doesn't work on roads in general, and has a very limited use case. Strange things to brag about.

    2. Re:Mapping vs real-time by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nissan is testing full auto diving at the moment on roads in the UK. I think it's sensible to go for the full no-driver-needed, but it seems that Tesla has forced their hand a bit and they are releasing a half baked auto-steering this year.

      It's rubbish even by current standards. Doesn't work at low speed, doesn't start moving again when stopped, limited to 60mph maximum.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. We do know by fyngyrz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ultraviolet is at the opposite end of the spectrum from infrared, a low frequency as opposed to a higher frequency.

    Sunglasses block UV at typically encountered energy levels because it is much more dangerous to your eyes; IR at typically encountered energies is not, and so they typically do not block IR, as there's been no need.

    That is not to say that some enterprising operation could make them block IR as well. At that point, the car would probably refuse to self-drive at all, though. Of course, you could paint on "eyes" using IR-visible, non-vision blocking paint...

    Anyway... a self-drive feature that won't self drive if you are doing anything but going through the exact motions of driving strikes me as almost completely useless. It is probably only a stopgap stage on the way to a more competent driving system.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:We do know by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      That is not to say that some enterprising operation could make them block IR as well.

      Rayban has you covered. One of my favourite films from my photography days was Kodak HIE and I would use it with a 920nm filter to get some seriously awesome photos. It was always fascinating taking a photo of groups of people wearing sunglasses. Most of them went completely translucent, except for the occasional one. Rayban's aviators seemed to across the board block IR light as well as UV.

  4. incorrect summary by jlv · · Score: 2

    "anonymous reader" writes:

    The system also gives Cadillac's vehicles a safety check not available to Tesla, which can't stop drivers from using Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot even when they're not on a highway.

    That's not correct! Tesla's system knows if you are on the highway or not. Currently cars with AP2 are strictly limited to 35MPH off a limited access highway, and 80MPH on it.