interview with Super Cruise assistant chief engineer

[macchiaz-o]

Super Cruise is the driver assistance system that BlueCruise aspires to. Here's an Autonews Shift episode where they interview Jeff Miller, an assistant chief engineer on the SuperCruise program.

He describes some of the system's capabilities, how it's better than the competition, the role of Lidar mapping, the importance of driver attention monitoring and escalating mechanisms for regaining driver attention, why SAE levels of autonomy are not the best way to compare vehicles, and some of GM's near term improvements planned for Super Cruise.

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[timbop]

interesting listen. One thing I haven't seen talked about (and maybe it's just me), but after being on the highway for half an hour with auto lane centering and ACC on I feel like I get into a "passenger" mode. That is, I feel like I'm just watching the car drive after a while and then when it's time for me to take over to pull off the highway and actually control the car I have to consciously switch from being a spectator to an active participant. It might just be me, but it does sometimes feel like waking up from a daydream - probably because I am in fact lost in thought.

 

[Jimrpa]

interesting listen. One thing I haven't seen talked about (and maybe it's just me), but after being on the highway for half an hour with auto lane centering and ACC on I feel like I get into a "passenger" mode. That is, I feel like I'm just watching the car drive after a while and then when it's time for me to take over to pull off the highway and actually control the car I have to consciously switch from being a spectator to an active participant. It might just be me, but it does sometimes feel like waking up from a daydream - probably because I am in fact lost in thought.

This is a well-known, and very serious concern with systems that rely on “human monitoring”. Think of security guards watching monitors. That’s why they switch the camera views around on the monitors. It turns out that people are not very good at passively overseeing or monitoring processes that are normally stable or uneventful and have really bad reaction times when their interaction IS required. You know what IS good at monitoring relatively unchanging processes? Yep - a computer ? the problem is that the process could go from stable and predictable with easily understood corrections, to totally chaotic instantly. Hence, the requirement for human supervision and a human able to immediately take over at any moment. This works better in aircraft because the phases of flight where the aircraft is on autopilot are less likely to become chaotic unexpectedly AND pilots undergo continual rigorous training in situations that introduce unexpected problems just to keep their reflexes up. We don’t have similar standards for auto drivers.

 

[macchiaz-o]

One thing I haven't seen talked about (and maybe it's just me), but after being on the highway for half an hour with auto lane centering and ACC on I feel like I get into a "passenger" mode.

During a long drive, I can tend to drift in and out of half awake states. It's scary. Part of me is falling asleep and telling me to pull over and the other part is saying "no we're almost there, snap out of it."

That helped me decide to go for the smaller battery pack. Less range means more regular and forced stops. Plus more range anxiety keeps me more alert.

I'm hoping Ford enables vision based driver attention monitoring even when not using BlueCruise mode. I want this nanny.

 

[timbop]

That helped me decide to go for the smaller battery pack. Less range means more regular and forced stops

Yes, I can see that. Back when I ordered the car I was on the fence between the RT1 and the AWD SR. I really wanted the performance and security of the AWD in winter, but back when we had to order I had no idea how conservative Ford was being with the range. I have a 100 mile commute, so with the unknown quantity of how much cold weather would effect performance and the concern about only charging to 80% (before we knew that there was an 11% reserve) I opted for quelling my range anxiety. It's a decision I keep second-guessing myself over, but I still think I made the right choice given that my wife was against me getting the thing in the first place. Being able to round trip on a single charge to see her sister in Lancaster, NYC, or Baltimore helps to avoid a complaint.

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