Cadillac To Release Self-Driving Cars By 2015

"The only exception is when the lines do not exist, or are not visible, in which case the driver will have to take the old-fashioned route and drive with both hands."<p>That sounds like a severely limited AI.<p>I wonder if some of these half solutions won't actually be worse for safety. Is someone a great deal more likely to completely shift attention from the road if the car is driving? Maybe even by dozing off? When that happens, how long will it take to regain sufficient focus if the white lines disappear on a stretch of road? How robust is the AI for a car that could be fooled by deceptively-painted lines?<p>Google's car is much more sophisticated. Given what Google has demonstrated, I'd rather we skip any intervening generations of half-self-driving cars. These pseudo driving cars seem just as likely to give the whole AI vehicle concept a black eye and set the industry back 10 years.

Who really believe Cadillac will release such car in 3 years? This news is missing the following statement:<p><pre><code> This release contains "forward-looking-statements". Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "believe," "appears," "may," "could," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "plan," "expect," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of projections, future performance or expectations, beliefs, plans or objectives for future operations (including statements of assumption underlying or relating to any of the foregoing). Actual results may differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements</code></pre>

Have insurance companies figured out how accidents, tickets and liability are being handled?<p>If there is anything I've learned in my career it is that building systems that are 100% completely error-free is pie in the sky thinking even in moderately controlled environments. Suffice it to say, I will be a very late adopter although I think the efforts are very exciting.

Related:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3881315" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3881315</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3878730" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3878730</a>

As the parent of two young boys (one of whom will be 16 in ~10 years) I can't begin to tell you how excited this makes me.<p>Ford Taurus introduced a 'parent key/child key' concept a few years ago that did things like limit stereo volume and top speed. This takes it one further.<p>No fretting about stupid accidents! No fretting about drunk driving!<p>"Sorry son, you can't ride with Johnny - he still has a manually controlled car."

Better coverage on Endgadget: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/cadillac-super-cruise/" rel="nofollow">http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/cadillac-super-cruise/</a><p>But it leaves me deeply suspicious. Having some insight into what it took the team at Google to get theirs to work I find that unless GM starts with that team, and their patent portfolio, this will be be a longer term thing. I'd put money on a self driving car from <i>someone</i> before 2020 but 2015 seems a bit early.<p>In spite of Google's fudging the delicate bits (see my comment on the drive thru non-experience) they have done a tremendous amount of work that a car company would be hard pressed to duplicate quickly. That and Lidar or their functional equivalent systems are still darn expensive.<p>That being said, I think it is <i>AWESOME</i> that we've got a major car company putting this stake firmly in the ground. If nothing else it will motivate a response from the others.

DARPA challengers have gotten really good at this, even when the road isn't that well marked. I think they can do it. I just hope there's a "sport mode" button to make it launch at its quickest 0-60, drift around corners and such.

I think the journalist made a mistake because he mentioned radar but not LIDAR. Far as I know no one has a serious self-driving vehicle without LIDAR, and I doubt that Cadillac is really proposing to change that.

They may be onto something. If we get all the bad drivers into these things. Maybe We'll finally have drivers that can drive and follow the rules of the road. Hooray! One concern though if these cars will watch for the lines on the road, how will they handle roads with no lines? I live in a place where apparently lines on the road are a new concept. And are non existent in a lot of places.

Question re. LIDAR (slightly OT to the specific article, but relevant to the general subject). How will LIDAR behave when there are multiple sources transmitting similar but overlapping scanning patterns across the terrain (like, say, a highway full of self-driving vehicles)?

As a motorcyclist, I really hope that all the upcoming variations of autonomous vehicles are <i>heavily</i> tested in all conceivable edge cases. Also, as a motorcyclist, I welcome the well-tested, never-tiring, unimpaired, highly predictable, self-driving AIs! :-)<p>With all manufacturers pursuing their own AI, though, I wonder if we'll have a future that echoes the past. If, say, Volvo has sub-optimal testing, perhaps 'ovlov' (an old Usenet joke - Volvo in your mirrors) will again become known as the bane of motorcyclists. Will Toyota launch ads bragging about their higher AI safety rating than Volvo?

I thought Cadillacs were already self driving<p>At least you never see any driver behind the wheel, perhaps a pair of hands or the top of a hat but never any driver.