These are the latest cars (and trucks) that drive themselves

Richard Lawler

Updated August 8, 2019 at 4:37 AM

<p>(Sort of) self-driving cars are coming: GM kicked off this week's ITS (<a href="http://itsworldcongress.org/">Intelligent Transport Systems</a>) World Congress by announcing <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/07/gm-super-cruise-v2v/">plans to release a new Cadillac with its semi-autonomous "Super Cruise" feature</a> in 2016. There's no word on what car that will be, but we <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksl-Fbmvxj4">tried</a> the feature out at GM's Milford Proving Ground last year and came away impressed. Press a button and the car drives itself on closed-access highways while your hands and feet stay off the controls.</p>

<p>Pitched as an improvement over existing cruise control, it takes the lane-keeping and dynamic cruise control systems we've already seen to the next level. While it won't navigate to your destination, if you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic or driving on a long stretch of highway on a road trip, it can give you a break. GM says it will make sure the driver remains "attentive," but hasn't provided any details on how that will work.</p>

<p>Source: <a href="http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2014/Sep/0907-its-overview.html">GM</a></p>

<p>During ITS World Congress 2014 in Detroit this week, this Peterbilt 579 concept truck demonstrated several features billed as driver assists instead of replacements. We've seen cars with cruise control that maintain the distance from other vehicles, lane-departure warning systems to warn the driver when they're drifting to one side or another, or parking assist -- but it's a bit different on a big rig like this.</p>

<p>It's not fully self-driving, but it's close. The cruise control can pull the truck to a complete stop if necessary, while the lane-departure system can self-correct with a steering assist. Integration with its GPS even lets the truck navigate the "last mile" or park itself at locations unfamiliar to the driver. It's just a concept, and Principal Engineer Bill Kahn tells <em><a href="http://fleetowner.com/technology/peterbilt-unveils-autonomous-truck-project">FleetOwner</a> </em>some of the adjustments that still need to be made are because of the wide range of different trailers a truck like this might haul.</p>

<p>Good news: It could help truck drivers from falling asleep on the road and getting into accidents. The bad news? We don't know if the truck's algorithms will respond to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_horn#Trucks">universal signal to blow the air horn</a>.</p>

<p>Source: <a href="http://www.peterbilt.com/about/media/2014/430/">Peterbilt</a></p>

See that spinning device on the roof rack? That's part of the LIDAR system that scopes out objects all around this Acura TLX, which lets the car drive itself along the highway guided by GPS. It can change lanes, avoid other cars and even merge on/off of different highways. Check out our full impressions of the system <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/08/self-driving-car-its-honda/">here</a>.

<p>Toyota brought this Lexus to ITS World Congress 2014, and it's equipped with the company's latest automated driving tech. Like Peterbilt, Toyota is focusing on driver assistance rather than self-driving, and says autonomous driving is too far off in the future right now. </p>

<p>The Automated Highway Driving Assist pulls together three systems: Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Lane Trace Control and Predictive & Interactive HMI. The cruise control assist uses a 77GHz millimeter-wave radar in the front grille to maintain a specific speed and distance relative to other cars on the road, and will be coming to market soon. The Lane Trace Control uses the aforementioned radar plus a forward-looking camera to pick up both lane markings and other cars. It then automatically adjusts the steering to keep the car in its lane while avoiding other vehicles.</p>

<p>The HMI tries to find situations where the other assist technologies might not work as well and warn the driver to take full control of the car. It uses GPS, a map and historical sensor performance to make that decision, and also keeps an eye on the driver to make sure they're looking ahead and have their hands on the steering wheel.</p>

<p>Other tech Toyota is working on includes a 3D heads-up display that renders information in 3D right on the windshield, including road signs, traffic conditions and the status of other vehicles. It has also developed a new radar system called SPAD LIDAR (Single Photon Avalanche Diode/Light Detection and Ranging) that squeezes the detection systems we've seen mounted on car roofs (check Honda's picture in this gallery) into a setup small enough to fit inside the car.</p>

<p>Source: <a href="http://pressroom.toyota.com/releases/toyota+advanced+automated+vehicle+technology+us+roads+sept4.htm">Toyota</a></p>

<p>This Caddy doesn't drive itself, but GM also announced that in 2016, the Cadillac CTS would carry the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology that others are so far just demonstrating. Of course, there won't be many other cars to talk to, but GM, Ford and others are <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/05/university-of-michigan-creates-fake-city/">working on a test project with the University of Michigan</a> involving thousands of cars in the Ann Arbor area. They've also teamed up with the <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/minewswire/0,4629,7-136-3452-336809--,00.html">Michigan Department of Transportation</a> to line hundreds of miles of Detroit highways with sensors that will report things like road conditions and traffic to properly equipped vehicles.</p>

<p>Source: <a href="http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2014/Sep/0907-its-overview.html">GM</a></p>

GM also brought along a self-driving version of its EN-V 2.0 concept car. Pictured here along with the two-wheeled <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/08/general-motors-takes-us-on-a-crazy-test-ride-in-the-en-v-electri/">original EN-V</a>, it uses camera, radar and V2X tech to stay aware of what's going on in its environment. All-electric, it's built for low speeds and two of them can fit in a standard-size parking spot. The idea is to reduce pollution and congestion in major cities, and was <a href="http://green.autoblog.com/2014/06/20/chevy-en-v-2-coming-to-tianjin-eco-city-china/">previously demonstrated</a> (without autonomous driving) in China.

<p>Automotive supplier Visteon was showing off the other popular buzzword of ITS at its Belle Isle demo: "vehicle to environment" or V2X. We rode along in a car equipped with the technology that lets cars talk to each other, to phones or to sensors mounted along the road itself on the 5.9GHz wireless band.</p>

<p>As we rode along, the car picked up signals from vehicles suddenly braking ahead, or a car in our lane that had stopped to let ducks cross in front and could even send over a picture from its camera to show what's going on. The third example had a car ahead run into (simulated) black ice, and send a message back alerting our driver to watch out for the slick road coming up.</p>

<p>By itself, the tech doesn't drive the car, but it can interact with systems that already exist, like braking assist to slow the car down even if the driver hasn't reacted to the problem yet.</p>

<p>Source: <a href="http://blog.visteon.com/2014/08/excitementbuilds-for-its-world-congress.html">Visteon</a></p>

No-hands driving is here

(Sort of) self-driving cars are coming: GM kicked off this week's ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) World Congress by announcing plans to release a new Cadillac with its semi-autonomous "Super Cruise" feature in 2016. There's no word on what car that will be, but we tried the feature out at GM's Milford Proving Ground last year and came away impressed. Press a button and the car drives itself on closed-access highways while your hands and feet stay off the controls.

Pitched as an improvement over existing cruise control, it takes the lane-keeping and dynamic cruise control systems we've already seen to the next level. While it won't navigate to your destination, if you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic or driving on a long stretch of highway on a road trip, it can give you a break. GM says it will make sure the driver remains "attentive," but hasn't provided any details on how that will work.

Source: GM