General Motors intends to introduce a new automated driving system called “Ultra Cruise” for the first premium vehicles in the course of 2023, which should be able to handle 95 percent of all situations including turning and parking. The manufacturer relies on an armada of sensors and powerful 5 nm processors.
The Level 2 assistance system, which is already available from premium brands such as Cadillac, is called “Super Cruise” and allows automated driving on highways approved by the company in the USA and Canada. As of July 2021, this included more than 320,000 kilometers of compatible roads in North America. Super Cruise allows the driver to permanently take their hands off the steering wheel and hand over all driving tasks to the car. The traffic situation still has to be monitored and the driver has to be ready for the takeover within a certain period of time.
Ultra cruise for millions of kilometers of road
The further development presented by General Motors is called “Ultra Cruise” and is intended to enable automated driving in 95 percent of all situations and therefore no longer just on highways. At the start in the USA and Canada, GM wants to release more than 3.2 million kilometers of roads for the system; in the long term, more than 5.4 million kilometers are targeted. In addition to the already approved highways, use on paved country roads, roads in cities and within residential areas is intended.
These are the new supported functions
Ultra Cruise will build on the capabilities of Super Cruise, which GM will continue to offer and which GM intends to introduce in the mainstream segment of the various group brands in the future, after it was only available from the premium brand Cadillac at the start. Ultra Cruise will offer the following features that go beyond the capabilities of Super Cruise, with GM planning continuous improvements through OTA updates.
- A new dynamic display with feedback of the system
- Reacts to permanent signs, traffic lights and other traffic signs
- Follows routes of the internal navigation system
- Takes full forward travel to the speed limit
- Supports automatic and on request lane changes
- Supports turning to the left and right
- Can avoid obstacles
- Can park in driveways in residential areas
In situations that Ultra Cruise cannot cope with without manual intervention, the system starts a data recording in order to transfer this information to the backend of Analyze GM and use it for future system improvements.
Ultra Cruise uses 5-nm architecture
Ultra Cruise runs on a high-performance 5 nm architecture, as GM explains, but without giving details about the individual chips or suppliers. The system is connected to the recently introduced Ultifi software platform, which GM intends to use in the future to process all cloud-based services, OTA updates, apps, upgrades (functions on demand) and personalized settings.
When it comes to sensors, Ultra Cruise relies on a combination of cameras, radar and lidar (also behind the windshield) to create a 360-degree image of the surroundings. GM also relies on redundant components in critical areas.
New cockpit visualizes what the car sees
Another important part of Ultra is the new dynamic display, which is based on the display for Super Cruise. This is intended to visually convey to the driver that the car and driver see the same thing and, in certain situations, indicate that manual takeover is necessary. The attention camera already known from Super Cruise will be adopted for Ultra Cruise, so that the traffic situation must continue to be monitored.
Ultra Cruise will first be introduced in 2023 in the first selected Cadillac models.