Michigan GMC Dealers Ready for Self-Driving Vehicles? By 2020 is the Goal says General Motors

Oct. 18, 2011 - PRLog -- DETROIT, M.I. – Michigan GMC dealers may have watched as new safety technology was created and added to the many new vehicles that are being produced: rearview cameras, side sensors for lane safety and more. As the need for more safety continues, automakers such as General Motors persist in the discovery, design and production of new technologies. GM’s current venture? Self-driving vehicles.
The goal at this point is to have vehicles able to be partially driven by an occupant while other abilities will be automated by the middle of the decade. By the end of the decade, the plan is to have a much more sophisticated system that allows for the vehicles to drive themselves with no driver involved in the main functions of the vehicles.
“The technologies we’re developing will provide an added convenience by partially or even completely taking over the driving duties,” said Alan Taub, the vice president of global research and development for GM, in a GM press release. “The primary goal, though, is safety. Future generation safety systems will eliminate the crash altogether by interceding on behalf of drivers before they’re even aware of a hazardous situation.”
Michigan GMC dealers may know that the combination of sensors, radars, portable communication devices, GPS as well as cameras are the basis for the information that is fed directly to the vehicle’s computer system. Digital maps will also help give the occupant the freedom to concentrate on everything else aside from driving.
There are already some technologies that General Motors has brought to its vehicles such as a lane departure warning system for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain; a side blind-zone alert for vehicles such as the Buick LaCrosse, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe; finally, there are many vehicles that are stocked with back-up cameras.
“In the coming years, we believe the industry will experience a dramatic leap in active safety systems, and, hopefully, a dramatic decline in injuries and fatalities on our roadways,” Taub said. “GM has made a commitment to be at the forefront of this development.”
Other technologies that General Motors is working on in the coming years include:
•   an industry-first with a crash avoidance system, which will use a camera to help driver avoid a front-end and lane departure crash
•   vehicle-to-vehicle as well as vehicle-to-infrastructure communication systems that will gather information from other vehicles, roadways and even traffics signals
•   the EN-V urban mobility concept which is a combination of GPS with vehicle-to-vehicle communication and distance-sensing technologies
Consumers will be able to look to Michigan GMC dealers and other across the country to find the safety and security that they have come to know is available in a General Motors vehicle but will soon come with the ability to relax comfortably without needing to watch the road.
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[Source(s): GM Media]