Momentum - March 2020 - 14

TODAY'S

ENGINEERING

GM'S CRUISE SELF-DRIVING VEHICLE
BUILT FOR UPGRADABLE HARDWARE
IN 2016, GENERAL MOTORS acquired
Cruise Automation, thereby launching
its self-driving business. After four years
using modified Chevrolet Bolt hatchbacks
to test its autonomous systems, Cruise in
January unveiled its first purpose-built
self-driving vehicle for a proprietary ridehailing service. An all-electric, van-like
vehicle, the Origin is equipped with an
arsenal of sensors, but lacks a steering
wheel and traditional pedals.
Removing a driver's seat and
conventional dashboard allowed Cruise
to provide a vast cabin space for six
passengers, with two 3-seat rows facing
one another. "Every seat is like an
extra-legroom seat on an airplane," said
Kyle Vogt, Cruise's President and Chief
Technology Officer. He said that the
Origin provides three times more area
to get in and out than a similarly sized
conventional vehicle.
The interior space is deceiving from
the outside. "The optics make it look
bigger," said Carl Jenkins, Vice President
of Hardware at Cruise. "The wheelbase
is about the same as a Honda CR-V."
At the launch event in San Francisco,
Cruise executives outlined the technical
details and strategy for how the Origin
will be deployed in a mass-scale global
fleet of shared, on-demand, autonomous
vehicles (AVs) that will compete with
Uber and Lyft.
They emphasized modularity,
upgradable technology and leveraging
GM's electric powertrain and assembly
plants. Each vehicle will have a
remarkable projected lifespan of about
1 million miles, with equipment and
software receiving updates over those
miles. "This is a fully engineered vehicle
that's on its way to production," said
Dan Ammann, Cruise's chief executive
officer. Ammann noted that relying on
the Origin for daily transportation would
save consumers $5,000 a year compared
to traditional vehicle ownership or using
today's ride-hailing services.
The business plan is audacious. "Our
goal is to replace a lot of the travel
14 March 2020

2003_TE_14-15.indd 14

Photo credit: Cruise

The Origin's interior space is deceiving from the outside. "The optics make it look bigger," said Carl
Jenkins, Vice President of Hardware at Cruise. "The wheelbase is about the same as a Honda CR-V."
that's happening in the United States
and around the world," said Ammann.
To make that happen in the U.S., the
Origin will need to pass Federal Motor
Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) that
don't currently allow vehicles without
steering wheels. Ammann said that Cruise
is working closely with NHTSA, which
recently published the 4.0 version of its
draft AV framework for public comment.
"We had to develop this vehicle with
some degree of risk," said Jenkins,
referring to the lack of an adopted
regulatory framework, even for essential
functions like the kind of messages and
warnings that need to be provided to
passengers and other motorists. That
required Cruise to make "judgement
calls," according to Jenkins.
The Origin is equipped with lidar,
radar and red-green-blue (RGB) and
infrared cameras. While Jenkins did not
provide specifications about the sensor
suite, Cruise executives highlighted the
packaging of those sensors in a unit
that quickly pivots horizontally to focus
on specific roadway elements. Vogt
compared the articulating unit, mounted
at the four corners of the roof, to the
ability of an owl to crane its neck to see
small objects in a field from high in the sky.

The algorithm for determining which
direction the unit should aim uses
redundant sensing, as well as the vehicle's
software-determined pathway. "We're not
just relying on cameras. Every time and
in every situation, there are at least two
different sensor types double-checking
the path for near-field, mid-range and
long-range," Jenkins said.
Jenkins explained that the high
position of the swiveling unit was
selected to provide the best view and to
prevent common damage at the bumper
level. "In our fleet of cars, the fascias are
getting hit every day by common things,"
said Jenkins. Cruise's fleet of modified
Bolts has accumulated nearly a million
miles of autonomous driving in San
Francisco in the past year alone.
The Origin also uses a perimeter of
ultra-short-range radar, with a range of
about 5 to 10 meters. Those radars are
mounted lower on the vehicle to detect
street- and curb-level objects. There
are additional sensors for functions
like listening for sirens and detecting if
the vehicle has been bumped. Jenkins
would not confirm details such as the
differences between the pivoting sensor
suite in the front and back of the Origin.

By Bradley Berman, Automotive Engineering

MOMENTUM

2/17/20 11:12 AM

Momentum - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Momentum - March 2020