A major car manufacturer in the United States has come out and stated that "self-driving" cars would be available for purchase in only a matter of years.
General Motors, which owns Cadillac, stated that autonomous driving vehicles could be on the road as early as 2015. Cadillac engineers have stated their new technology that would allow the car to drive by itself would be called "Super Cruise."
This new driving system would integrate some of the car's safety features which have already been installed on some models.
The self-driving cars would incorporate the use of cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors to develop a digital understanding of its surrounding environment. The use of GPS will also be present as it would be used to let the car and driver know its exact position on the road.
There are several cars that are produced by Cadillac that already use some of the technology needed. Cadillac's ATS and XTS are already equipped with features like forward collision warning, reaction cruise control, front and rear cameras, as well as highly efficient GPS systems.
Cadillac is using those features as a starting point in developing a commercially viable self-driving car.
"We see the semi-autonomous vehicle, or self-driving vehicle as the next stage in that evolution, toward full autonomy," said Don Butler, vice president of Cadillac marketing.
According to Cadillac, one of the main features still in development is the pivotal "lane centering" technology. This feature in conjunction with other features already in the car would allow the vehicle to determine driving lanes and to make sure that the car stays within the lanes.
This new technology uses GPS so the car can get an exact position of its location. One drawback that has yet to be reconciled is the fact that some roads do not have lanes or that they are not recognizable from the cars sensors. This would force the driver of the car to manually control the vehicle.