Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022
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Wednesday, March 8, 2023
9th edition of the 11th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
GM Announces Ultra Cruise, Enabling True Hands-Free Driving Across 95 Percent of Driving Scenarios
Press release, March 6, “Today, General Motors unveiled Ultra Cruise, an all-new, advanced driver-assistance technology and significant next step in the company’s journey to enable its goal of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. Designed to ultimately enable hands-free driving in 95 percent of all driving scenarios, Ultra Cruise eventually can be used on every paved road in the U.S. and Canada.
Ultra Cruise will cover more than 2 million miles of roads at launch in the United States and Canada, with the capacity to grow up to more than 3.4 million miles. Customers will be able to travel truly hands free with Ultra Cruise across nearly every road including city streets, subdivision streets and paved rural roads, in addition to highways.
GM’s two hands-free advanced driver-assist systems will coexist in the company’s lineup with Super Cruise available on more mainstream vehicles and Ultra Cruise reserved for premium entries.
“The combination of Ultra Cruise for premium offerings and Super Cruise for lower-cost products will enable us to offer driver-assist technology across price points and segments,” said Parks.
Always pay attention while driving and when using Ultra Cruise and Super Cruise. Do not use a hand-held device.
Hmmmm… Very interesting. High-end and includes LiDAR See ZoomCast 307 / PodCast 307 and Andrew Hawkins’ “GM’s Ultra Cruise will use radar, camera, and lidar to enable hands-free driving”, below. Alain
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 307 / PodCast 307 w Jason Ditman, Chief Engineer GM
F. Fishkin, March 7, “GM says Ultra Cruise will arrive with the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq and will ultimately enable hands free driving in 95 percent of driving situations. Ultra Cruise chief engineer Jason Ditman joins Alain and Fred for episode 307 of Smart Driving Cars. He tackles the tough questions and issues. Plus Cruise Robotaxi unit cutting costs, NHTSA probing Zoox self certification and Embark winding down.
- 0:00 open
- 0:40 GM Ultra Cruise Chief Engineer Jason Ditman introduction
- 1:55 How did development go during Covid?
- 4:32 Announcement that Ultra Cruise will first arrive on 2024 Cadillac Celestiq
- 8:45 Alain comments on Super Cruise
- 9:50 How does Ultra Cruise availability figure into route planning
- 13:40 Why is hands off is important and not feet off
- 16:45 If using intelligent cruise control…why does it disengage when brakes are tapped?
- 25:29 System is separate from automated emergency braking…how do they talk to each other
- 28:43 Response to Missy Cummings headlines that people using automated systems involved in crashes were speeding more often than people driving without automated systems engaged.
- 33:24 GM Cruise says focused on cutting costs this year according to Reuters
- 37:25 NHTSA opens probe, reportedly, into self certification of the test procedures at Zoox
- 41:08 Embark winding down operations, laying off most employees
- 44:41 Kudos to GM Ultra Cruise team
- 49:24 Here comes Alain’s spring break
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Friday, February 3, 2023
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Friday, January 27, 2023
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023
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Friday, January 13, 2023
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Sunday, January 8, 2023
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SafeDrivingCars: Those in which the automated function are explicitly designed to not only substantially reduce driver misbehavior by constraining the performance characteristic such as incorporating speed governors that only permit excessive speeds in geofenced locations such as Watkins Glen International and stretches of the German Autobahn, but also automatically intervene to prevent crashes; thus, extending what is done today with anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control.
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SelfDrivingCars: Those which allow the driver for some extended period of time to be “feet-off” the brake & throttle, delivering to the driver substantial comfort & convenience, but also “hands-off” the wheel for shorter periods of time providing a little more comfort & convenience. Absolutely required are “eyes & brain” focused the human task of driving, ready to intervene should the automated driver begin to fail.
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DriverlessCars: Those which serve only passengers and/or good from trip start, through finish. Luckily, the notion that individuals might own such vehicles for personal use and/or be able to “AirB&B” them for others to get from A to B is now realized by essentially everyone as exceedingly naïve. The Mercedes booth at this year’s CES showed no sign of its [Mercedes Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion LIVE PREMIERE CES 2015](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eftN0lwNk88). Yea!
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Friday, December 30, 2022
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Sunday, December 25, 2022
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Saturday, December 17, 2022
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Sunday, December 11, 2022
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Friday, December 2, 2022
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Sunday, November 27, 2022
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Saturday, November 19, 2022
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Monday, November 14, 2022
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Sunday, November 6, 2022
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- Hawkins, Oct. 27, “When Ford announced yesterday that it was pulling its support for Argo AI, the autonomous driving startup it had financed since 2017, it cited as one of its reasons a belief that driver-assist technology will have more near-term payoffs…..” Hmmmm… I agree with Andrew, as I stated above. Alain
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Friday, October 14, 2022
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Saturday, October 08, 2022
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Thursday, September 29, 2022
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Saturday, September 10, 2022
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- Tesla FSD Beta V 10.69 Dominates Downtown Driving
- FSD Beta 10.69 (2022.16.3.10) Release Notes
- FSDBeta v10.69 - HEAVY TRAFFIC - Unprotected Left Turns… Amazing that such turns are legal let alone FSD’s routing algorithm deciding that this is on the best way to go. Safety must not be part of its objective function C’mon Elon.
- FSD Beta V 10.69 Initial Impressions. My impression is that 10.69 drove better than this tester who seemed intent on driving aggressively and not wanting to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Hopefully no one at Tesla pays attention to this guy.
- Bullish News From Giga Berlin Tours, Production Rumors, Terrible Toyota
- The Tesla Semi Is Officially Here!
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Monday, August 22, 2022
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Saturday, August 6, 2022
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Saturday, July 30, 2022
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Monday, July 25, 2022
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Saturday, July 16, 2022
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Saturday, June 11, 2022
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Saturday, June 18, 2022
- These systems outrageously reduce crash probabilities, and/or
- maybe some, but we’re probably not much luckier.
- very few of the cars in use during that “10” month period had Level 2 capabilities, and/or
- unfortunately, the VIN number doesn’t identify these cars and only Tesla announces how many sold (I may have missed the reportings)
- very few of the drivers of those cars rarely engaged the Level 2 features, and/or
- likely. Only Tesla releases data on the utilization of its level 2 features but does so only in aggregate terms that don’t allow for correction of sampling bias associated with engagement in “easy” driving conditions versus “challenging” driving conditions.
- enormous under counting
- likely, only Tesla has the opportunity to either “know all” or sample effectively because of their OtA monitoring of its vehicles. Everyone else has conveniently kept their heads in the sand. Mercedes didn’t report any; however, during that period I think my Intelligent Cruise Control and Lane Centering were engaged when I hit a deer. Mercedes must not have been watching me, I didn’t report it and I didn’t get the memo that informed me to do anything.
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Saturday, June 11, 2022
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Saturday, May 28, 2022
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Sunday, May 15, 2022
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Saturday, May 7, 2022
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Friday, April 30, 2022
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Saturday, April 23, 2022
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Thursday, April 15, 2022
- those that don’t already have a stable full of their own personal mobility options.
- those for which his aTaxi can substantially change their lives for the better.
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Thursday, March 31, 2022
PersonTripLength (90%tile): 10 miles
Cost:
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Friday, February 4, 2022