General Motors delayed introduction of a driver assistance technology called Super Cruise that was initially planned for late last year because it said it was not ready. The technology will go on sale this fall.
Barry Walkup, chief engineer of Super Cruise, said the company added "a driver attention function, to insist on driver supervision."
The system uses a small camera that focuses on the driver and works with infrared lights to track head position to determine where the driver is looking.
If the system—which uses facial recognition software—detects the driver is not paying attention, it will prompt the driver to return attention to the road. If the driver does not respond, it will escalate alerts, including a steering wheel light bar, visual indicators, tactile alerts in the seat and audible alerts. If the driver does not respond, the vehicle is brought to a controlled stop.
Maybe the driver should just, you know, drive? Sure some safety features like auto-braking or collision avoidance might be good (if implemented well), but those are just safety features, not "you don't actually have to drive the car" features.