GM trademarks Hyper Cruise, a new autonomous driving system

KUALA LUMPUR: The two best semi-self-diving assist systems available in the automotive world are Tesla Autopilot and General Motors Super Cruise. Both the systems use cameras, radars, sonar, and GPS navigation for enabling autonomous driving. But now GM seems ready to take on Tesla with the next stage in capability. 

The company has recently filed a trademark with the United States Trademark and Patent Office with the name “Hyper Cruise,” as reported by Muscle Cars and Trucks. The trademark description reads: “electronic speed and steering control system for facilitating the autonomous driving of a motor land vehicle, sold as an integral part thereof.”

Earlier in 2018, General Motors also registered an “Ultra Cruise” moniker with USPTO which was supposed to be a second-generation version of the Super Cruise system. So, a new filing indicates that GM perhaps dropped the Ultra Cruise in favor of Hyper Cruise. However, the descriptions of the two names are different; Ultra Cruise had a mention of semi-autonomous driving while the Hyper Cruise is explained as an autonomous driving system.

This could mean that the company is finally coming ahead with a Level 3 autonomous driving, based on SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) J3016 standards, defining six levels of driving automation - Level 0 to Level 5. According to society, the currently available systems fall under the Level 2 category as they can only take over steering, acceleration, and braking events within a set framework, and the drivers must need to monitor the system and the road ahead attentively, so they could take over the sudden control in case of emergency.

To enable Level 3, GM would require high levels of artificial intelligence as it is a major leap from Level 2. But if it happens, Hyper Cruise could be the first system to do so.

Talking about the currently available Super Cruise, the system is limited to a few Cadillac models. However, the company has planned to expand Super Cruise to 22 vehicles by 2023, including the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra 1500, and recently introduced GMC Hummer EV pickup.

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