Auto maker Honda is to invest US$2.75bn in General Motors and Cruise to develop a purpose-built autonomous vehicle for large-scale manufacture and deployment, it has been announced.

The Japanese car maker has committed the large sum of cash over 12 years to reach the shared goal with General Motors to transform mobility. Combined with recent SoftBank investments in Cruise, the total valuation of the AV company is now a combined US$14.6bn.

“Honda chose to collaborate with Cruise and General Motors based on their leadership in autonomous and electric vehicle technology and our shared vision of a zero-emissions and zero-collision world,” said Seiji Kuraishi, Honda executive vice president and representative director COO.

Continue reading Honda and General Motors join forces to build autonomous cars at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

An advanced driver-assistance technology from GM called Super Cruise allows drivers of its Cadillac CT6 to reduce the fatigue of long-distance travel with a hands-off-on-the-highway system.

In development for more than five years, it relies on a fusion of radar, ultrasonic sensors, cameras and GPS, as well as two important additions that set the system apart from other Level 2 technologies – lidar map data and an innovative head tracking Driver Attention System (DAS) to ensure drivers are looking at the road ahead.

GM Super Cruise technology
The system uses a combination of sensors, cameras, GPS, and lidar maps to allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel on pre-mapped roads in the USA and Canada. 

Continue reading GM Super Cruise: How the hands-off driving technology works at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

General Motors’ Super Cruise hands-free highway driving system, available on the 2018 Cadillac CT6, makes use of Trimble’s Real-Time eXtended (RTX) GNSS/GPS correction technology to help maintain lane position.

Trimble’s RTX technology provides real-time, multi-constellation GNSS positioning capable of achieving better than 1.5in accuracy. Trimble says standard GPS signals can drift up to 25ft, which could cause incorrect lane identification.

RTX is designed to improve lane-level positioning performance for semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles, when used in conjunction with high-definition maps, cameras, radar and inertial sensors.

RTX technology uses signals captured by more than 100 Trimble GNSS reference stations around the globe.

Continue reading Trimble’s RTX helps General Motors’ Super Cruise maintain lane position at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.