Automated Vehicles Symposium 2015: Self-Driving Technology Imminent, but not Without Issues
Dr. Cem U. Saraydar of General Motors. Photo: AUVSI.
The landscape for driverless cars is transitioning from a theoretical debate topic to a technology with an imminent rollout timeline, according to the speakers at this year’s Autonomous Vehicles Symposium, being held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this week.
Michael Pozsar, vice president of electronic controls, electronics and safety at Delphi, discussed his company’s recent cross-country driverless trip from San Francisco to New York. Ninety-nine percent of the trip was completed autonomously, he said at the conference, organized by AUVSI and TRB.
There were still issues — inconsistent lane markings by states, low light situations in bridges and tunnels, construction zones, and even confused other drivers.
“You can imagine reaction from the drivers around us,” he said. “Oh boy, it’s a good thing engineers have thick skin, because all kinds of indecent hand gestures were offered to our drivers,” who were going the exact speed limit, he says.
Dr. Cem U. Saraydar, director of electrical and controls systems research lab at General Motors, discussed his company’s rollout plans for autonomous driving technology.
The company will deploy its SuperCruise hands-free highway car in the next couple of years, he said, on a Cadillac CT6.
“The sensors that are on this vehicle are impressive, but it also manifests our systems approach to increasing levels of automation,” he says.
The company will also debut its V2X feature on its 2017 Cadillac CTS, which allows the car to communicate with other cars and infrastructure.
Keynote speaker Dr. Mark R. Rosekind, administrator from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, discussed his agency’s aggressive timeline to move on vehicle-to-vehicle technology adoption. He expressed disappointment in Congress’s series of temporary solutions for the transportation system, but assured speakers the Department of Transportation secretary is committed to technological solutions to fix problems.
He said that spectrum is still an issue; however, NHTSA is willing to share the allocated 5.9-megahertz for driverless cars with other players. A bigger technological threat, he said, was cybersecurity.
“We know these systems will become targets for bad actors,” says Rosekind. “We must reassure vehicle owner that their data is secure ... and that we are looking out for threats from hackers and thieves.”
Aside from technology, Rosekind says the industry’s hesitance to share safety information because of competition is a problem that has to be solved. And he thinks driverless cars could be the topic that allows this to occur. He said it would be reprehensible if airlines toted safety records against each other the way car companies do.
“You can help establish that new mindset,” he said. “That is a challenge that we all face.”
