Sean O'Kane is a photographer for The Verge.
The compute architecture that powers General GM's next-generation driving system has been completely reworked thanks to US chipmaker Qualcomm.
The Ultra Cruise system, which will be used in the Cadillac Celestiq electric sedan, will be the first ADAS to use the new Snapdragon Ride Platform. The new architecture will have the processing power equivalent to several hundred personal computers, according to GM.
Two laptops are stacked together.
GM first announced Ultra Cruise during an investor event last year, describing it as a massive leap over the company's Super Cruise system, which allows for hands-free driving on mapped, divided highways. Ultra Cruise will cover 95 percent of driving scenarios on 2 million miles of roads in the US.
The chief engineer at GM said in an interview that they are trying to have a feature that is door-to-door. Ultra Cruise will handle most of the work hands-free when the vehicle gets onto a capable road. There are stop signs, stoplights, turns, splits, merges, freeways, subdivision and all of those other things.
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The new high-powered processors from Qualcomm are to blame. Last year, GM entered into an agreement with Qualcomm to provide computer chips for their next generation of electric vehicles. One of the first vehicles to feature the chipmaker's new ADAS platform will be the Cadillac Celestiq.
GM says that the two systems will deliver low-latency control functions on 16-core CPUs and high- performance artificial intelligence compute of more than 300 Tera Operations Per Second for camera, radar, and lidar processing. It saves the car a lot of room.
It allows us to be more efficient with space.
It allows us to be more efficient with space. It gives us the throughput we need. It allowed us to take what was originally architected to be distributed modules throughout the car and put it in a single box.
The consolidation of modules for driver monitoring, mapping, and video processing into one box has improved the system's latency because it allows GM to circumvent the previous system routed through the vehicle's CAN network. Ultra Cruise will use cameras, radars, and lidar to control the vehicle. The system relies on a total of 20 different devices, but GM hasn't announced all the details around the sensor suite.
The Society of automotive Engineers defines Ultra Cruise as a Level 2 system. At Level 2, the vehicle can control steering and acceleration, as well as monitor blind spots and even change lanes. If the driver doesn't keep their eyes on the road, the vehicle's sensors will detect it and send warnings to the driver before they disengage.
GM learned a lot from monitoring driver behavior and made appropriate modifications for Ultra Cruise based on those findings. Some studies have shown that drivers are slow to take back control from a Level 2 system, a troubling sign that could undermine the safety case for more advanced driver assistance. GM's robust driver monitoring system is a good training tool to get people to pay attention.
