Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - November 2021 - 16

ADAS
Building on the HMI currently used in Super
Cruise (shown), the illuminated steering
wheel and driver-attention camera system
will be carried over to Ultra Cruise.
parking in residential driveways; reacting to permanent
traffic control devices; following internal navigation
routes; supporting close object avoidance, automatic/
on-demand lane changes and left-/right-hand turns.
The system's sensor suite will leverage a combination
of cameras and radars, with a lidar module
integrated behind the windshield to provide a 3D,
360° statistical representation of the environment
surrounding the vehicle and " redundancies in critical
areas. " A learning diagnostic system will automatically
identify scenarios in need of upgrading, triggering
data recordings in vehicles equipped with the service.
These recordings will be processed through GM's data
ecosystem to continuously improve the system.
Building on the human-machine interface (HMI)
currently used in Super Cruise (first introduced in 2017
on the Cadillac CT6), the illuminated steering wheel
and driver-attention camera system will be carried over
to Ultra Cruise. No pricing information or whether the
system will be a one-time option or subscription based
was announced, but the media introduction did include
a Q&A session with Jason Ditman, the chief engineer
in GM's automated driving group responsible for Ultra
Cruise. An edited version of that exchange follows:
Do you consider Ultra Cruise to be an SAE
Level 2 system like Super Cruise?
Ultra Cruise will be an [SAE] Level 2 automated driving
system, so it does require the driver to pay attention.
Does Ultra Cruise use the same sensor
suite as Super Cruise?
The sensing architecture is all new. There are additional
cameras and radars, and we are adding lidar to
the vehicle. They're not carryover sensors. They're the
second and third generation of cameras and radars,
and of course the lidar is all new.
Will Ultra Cruise function as a door-todoor
system?
As I get to the edge of my driveway, once conditions
are met, Ultra Cruise will engage automatically, so the
steering wheel light bar will turn green. It will take me
about a hundred yards to my first stop sign and it will
stop at that stop sign. It will make the left-hand turn onto
Grand River Avenue. It will then go to M52, take a righthand
turn for me at the stoplight, go over the railroad
tracks automatically, merge onto 96, take 96 all the way
to the Mound Road exit. Take me off the Mound Rd exit
through all those stoplights to the main gate at the proving
ground. That is what an Ultra Cruise drive will be.
Can you provide any details on the Ultra
Cruise compute platform?
We have a new state-of-the-art compute. Our prototype
compute that we're using in our vehicles that we're doing
software development on now takes up the entire third
row in the cargo area of a [GMC] Yukon. For production,
we've gotten that compute down to the size of two
16 November 2021
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Cadillac
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - November 2021

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