GM to offer a car that will almost drive itself

Photo

Barra

Associated Press

DETROIT

General Motors says that in two years it will offer cars that talk to each other and can almost drive themselves at freeway speeds.

The company announced Sunday that the semi-autonomous freeway system called “Super Cruise” will be an option on a new Cadillac that goes on sale in the summer of 2016. The company also plans to put vehicle-to-vehicle transmitters and receivers on all Cadillac CTS models during the same time frame.

The announcements were made at the start of an intelligent-vehicle conference in Detroit.

GM CEO Mary Barra says the system would allow you to drive long distances with the car doing much of the work. But GM says it’s working on a system to make sure that drivers still pay attention. Details of that system weren’t released.

“Sensing technology is not yet to the point where the driver can check out,” said John Capp, GM’s director of global safety strategy. “This is a level of automation that can be done, that is feasible.”

The new Cadillac that will get Super Cruise hasn’t been officially announced yet. But executives have hinted that GM will build a big, rear-drive Caddy to lead its lineup in the coming years.

Also Sunday, the Michigan Department of Transportation announced that it will partner with GM, Ford Motor Co. and the University of Michigan to build a pilot project connecting cars and roads on 120 miles of Detroit-area freeways. They gave no time frame for the project to start working, but said it would give southeast Michigan the lead in development of autonomous vehicles and those that talk to each other.

Sensors and transmitters along freeways would pick up information from cars and transmit it to other vehicles, telling them of stopped or slowed traffic ahead, or even that another car has slammed on its brakes.