[DonC]

There is an article in the NY Times about GM (and Mary Barra) betting that autonomy is the future and how they plan to get there. Definitely worth a read. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news The one point the article doesn't make that forcefully is that, because of the electrical demands of the electronics, autonomous vehicles need to be electric vehicles.

Of course hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are also electric vehicles, and, apparently coincidentally, there is also an article on hydrogen vehicles. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/...w-the-refilling-stations.html?ref=automobiles

 

[hvacman]

Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a business professor at Yale and a leadership expert who has known most of Ms. Barra’s predecessors dating back decades, is convinced of her resolve. “Mary is the right person at the right time, and she does it without an ounce of showmanship,” he said.

Vote Mary for President - 2020

 

[Bacardi]

GM's AP competitor, "SuperCruise" to be deployed to exactly ONE vehicle for 2017...Is it their groundbreaking EV, the Bolt? Nope and that doesn't even offer ACC...Is it their best selling "electric" offering the Volt? Nope (and with the ordering guide out, it won't be in the 2018 Volt either)...It's the CT6, the ICE version only, they even offer a PHEV CT6 yet supercruise is omitted there...

I'm routing for you GM, if you don't first succeed...

 

[Sly Bob]

I agree Bacardi. I'm rooting for them but won't buy a Bolt until they AT LEAST have ACC in the darn thing. It's disappointing that they sell a car that they claim is so advanced when it doesn't have the tech that many cars have for less money.
I can wait...

 

[DonC]

GM's AP competitor, "SuperCruise" to be deployed to exactly ONE vehicle for 2017...Is it their groundbreaking EV, the Bolt?

I agree Bacardi. I'm rooting for them but won't buy a Bolt until they AT LEAST have ACC in the darn thing. It's disappointing that they sell a car that they claim is so advanced when it doesn't have the tech that many cars have for less money.
I can wait...

I think you're missing the point. You (and me for that matter) are not the target market for autonomous vehicles. And the CT6, with its small battery pack, isn't the right vehicle for an autonomy. ACC is a driving aid. You can put that into any vehicle for a reasonable cost. Even something like Tesla's AutoPilot, which is camera based, can be deployed for a reasonable cost. Autonomous vehicles, which will require lidar and detailed mapping, are much more expensive to build and deploy. Those costs can only be supported by commercial applications where lower running costs and the ability to displace labor justify the cost and price. I don't understand why GM didn't put ACC in the Bolt EV, but I do see that it would be unnecessary for a vehicle inteded for local driving. The lack of ACC would be a deal breaker for me on a long hauler like the CT6. On the Bolt EV, which is definitely not designed for long trips, it's a "nice to have but no big deal if it's not there" feature.

In a bit of related news, it appears that the Model S is involved in accidents twice as often as other cars like the BMW 5 series. Not reaching any conclusions why, but it seems odd that a car with a system which is supposedly twice as safe as one without is involved in twice as many accidents as one without.

 

[Bacardi]

Vote Mary for President - 2020

Well, from the article: "<Mary is> taking the lead for the industry in talks on fuel-economy rules."

I think you're missing the point. You (and me for that matter) are not the target market for autonomous vehicles. And the CT6, with its small battery pack, isn't the right vehicle for an autonomy. ACC is a driving aid. You can put that into any vehicle for a reasonable cost. Even something like Tesla's AutoPilot, which is camera based, can be deployed for a reasonable cost. Autonomous vehicles, which will require lidar and detailed mapping, are much more expensive to build and deploy. Those costs can only be supported by commercial applications where lower running costs and the ability to displace labor justify the cost and price. I don't understand why GM didn't put ACC in the Bolt EV, but I do see that it would be unnecessary for a vehicle inteded for local driving. The lack of ACC would be a deal breaker for me on a long hauler like the CT6. On the Bolt EV, which is definitely not designed for long trips, it's a "nice to have but no big deal if it's not there" feature.

In a bit of related news, it appears that the Model S is involved in accidents twice as often as other cars like the BMW 5 series. Not reaching any conclusions why, but it seems odd that a car with a system which is supposedly twice as safe as one without is involved in twice as many accidents as one without.

Tesla sells a fully autonomous package to every S/X and claims to be offering it to the M3, its pending regulatory approval and so far, there haven't yet been any lawsuits so if it was a scam/money grab surely they would have been sued for it by now...While all the hardware is in place, I fully understand the mindset around here that everything is pure vaporware until there's an official press release stating otherwise and that the fully autonomous Tesla still hasn't yet happened...

The data with Tesla crashing is subjective at best, buy a Tesla S 100D (non performance) the 0-60 is 4.2...That's basically a CTS-V or a 6.2 V8 ICE Camaro...If a spouse took out their partners P100D for the first time and decided to do a WOT run, problems may occur...Also Tesla was extremely lazy on not deploying Automatic Emergency Braking an option most other vehicles offer, however some are still not standard on the model, need high trims and/or additional packages...