General Motors has announced details of its first cars to employ automated driving technology.
The auto manufacturers said the hi-tech vehicle would be released in 2016.
A report on Monday by an online journal, The Verge, quoted the Chief Executive Officer of the auto firm, Mary Barra, as saying a new Cadillac model equipped with Super Cruise, a semi-automatic system for hands-free driving on highways, whether travelling fast or stuck in traffic, would go on sale in two years.
Barra described the Super Cruise “an advanced, highly automated driving technology” that would let the driver “take a break from the wheel and pedals and let the car do the work.”
The firm said its first car equipped with V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) technology was also set to hit the market in two years.
It said, “The 2017 Cadillac CTS will be able to communicate with other V2V cars and infrastructure to help reduce crashes and congestion.”
Barra compared the technology to active traffic management projects that are up and running in various parts of the world, but noted the concept had the potential to be “much more impactful” if the cars were communicating with the roads and each other.
According to the firm, the initiatives are less ambitious than projects like Google’s futuristic, fully-automated self-driving car, but they also have much more likelihood of making it to market through the tangled web of regulation.
The GM’s Product Development, Chief Mark Reuss, had earlier this year said, “It’s going to be a creep, it’s not going to be a mind-bending thing. I don’t think you’re going to see an autonomous vehicle take over the city anytime soon.”
Reuss also said that Google could become a “serious competitive threat” to the automotive industry if the technology takes off. And that’s something that the GM’s CEO believes will happen. “I’m convinced customers will embrace V2V and automated driving technologies for one simple reason: they are the answer to everyday problems that people want solved,” Barra said.
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