Cadillac to Debut Self-Driving System This Year

General Motors Co.’s Cadillac unit will introduce Super Cruise, a self-driving system for highway use, in its 2018 model CT6 luxury sedan this autumn, confirming media reports from last November. 

The system can operate the vehicle automatically within its driving lane, as can the conditionally autonomous systems offered by other carmakers. But Cadillac says its technology is unique because it adds an industry-first attention monitoring system to make sure the operator remains ready to take control if necessary.

The latter feature employs a camera at the top of the steering column that monitors the driver’s head position. The system tolerates brief inattention but prompts the driver if it detects longer periods in which the operator isn’t looking ahead.

Warnings continue to escalate through a series of audio, visual and vibrating alerts if the driver fails to respond. If the operation remains unresponsive, the system brings the car to a safe stop and may alert first responders.

To more precisely track and control a vehicle's location, the Super Cruise system uses a lidar-scanned database and lane-centering technology in addition to current GPS, cameras and radar sensors.

The lidar system, which GM touts as an industry first, was used to map every mile of limited-access highways in the U.S. and Canada. This improves location accuracy by as much as eight times and restricts hands-free driving to divided highways with onramps and no potential for cross traffic, according to the carmaker.