Posts from ‘Autonomous Cars’
2020 Cadillac CT5 Premium Luxury
In the lead-up to the 2019 New York International Auto Show, Cadillac has officially introduced its all-new compact 4-door sedan. The 2020 CT5 is a fastback-shaped sports sedan that offers turbocharged 4-cylinder or twin-turbo V6 engines, a choice of rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and a host of high-tech available features.
Hands-Free Haven: Volvo 360c Concept
Volvo 360c Concept
Where would you live if you could commute each workday in an autonomous-driving, fully-functional, connected, comfortable, mobile office space? What if the service was provided via an on-demand subscription basis? Or, what if it was provided by one employer but not another – which company would you work for?
2018 Cadillac CT6 Platinum in Satin Steel Metallic
2018 Cadillac CT6 Platinum
Class: Premium Large Car
Miles driven: 322
Fuel used: 15.9 gallons
2018 BMW 740e xDrive iPerformance in Magellan Grey
2018 BMW 740e xDrive iPerformance
Class: Premium Large Car
Miles driven: 210
Fuel used: 7.8 gallons
If there is an automotive analogy to the concept of a shadow government, it’s the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Although there’s nothing actually shadowy about the group, its members do establish a considerable number of standards and general guidelines by which the industry regulates and organizes itself. The SAE does this while having no direct relationship with any car manufacturer or the government.
In the 1956 short film “Key to the Future,” General Motors predicted a hands-free driving system not unlike the Cadillac Super Cruise option due for 2018.
The 2018 Cadillac CT6 is slated to offer Super Cruise–General Motors’ first true hands-free driving technology–when the car goes on sale this fall. That’s great, but we think GM had autonomous driving nailed more than 60 years ago. Well, maybe not nailed, but the company certainly had a good handle on what hands-free driving might look like one day. In the promotional film “Key to the Future,” GM explores the possibility of hands-free driving from the perspective of a family of vacationers. The film was first seen in 1956 as part of GM’s annual touring Motorama exhibition.
Google’s “Waymo” autonomous-vehicle initiative includes evaluation of 100 specially equipped Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
As seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the Kobayashi Maru is a Star Fleet Academy training exercise designed to test the character of cadets. The Maru simulation forces cadets to choose between ignoring a dire request for assistance by a stranded ship (the Kobayashi Maru), or staging a rescue of the ship–despite strong indicators that the distress call is a trap set by an enemy.
We may be sun-setting the driver-involvement era, but Tom is reasonably OK with that.
The evidence has been piling up for a while now, but the verdict is unavoidable: The traditional automobile is all but dead.
There are a couple of paths we can take to reach this conclusion, and a couple of different definitions of “dead” that we can employ, but there’s one particular path and one outcome that I am most saddened by.
Why drive when you can play Scrabble? Seems we’re closing in on building viable driverless vehicles, but is the buying public ready to let computers do the driving?
The auto industry has thrust a great deal on the buying public in the last decade or so. After about a century of fairly predictable motoring progress, car builders rather suddenly began throwing once-unheard-of options at consumers.
Steve Mahan, who is legally blind, “drives” Google’s self-driving car.
Google’s self-driving cars have been on the road for more than a year now. This week, a DMV in Nevada issued the first driver’s license for this vehicle, with the condition that there are two people in the car at all times. Using a vast array of technology—including a laser radar on the roof to detect cars, people, and other objects—the self-driving car has been remarkably effective. And it’s not as scary as it seems. The driver can take control of the car simply by pressing the brake or touching the steering wheel.
