GM's Ultra Cruise autonomous driving system will utilize Qualcomm's Snapdragon Ride hardware.

General Motors' Super Cruise hands-off driver assistance feature for highways is already one of the best-performing automated driving systems on the market, but its performance will be even better after 2023.

GM plans to launch an upgraded version, called Ultra Cruise, which the automaker says will cover 95% of the country's roads and eliminate the need for actual human drivers on many journeys. Like Super Cruise, Ultra Cruise requires the driver to constantly monitor the situation and take action when necessary. If not, they will be shut down. In other words, it would rank at Level 2 on the SAE automated driving capability scale. To rank above Level 2, the automated driving system must function in eyes-off mode.

Nevertheless, according to GM, Ultra Cruise will recognize permanent traffic control devices, follow navigation routes, obey posted speed limits, perform automatic and on-demand lane changes, make left and right turns, avoid objects, and park in residential driveways.

This is made possible by complex software, a database of very detailed maps, and numerous sensors. Everything is processed and controlled by a scalable computer, which GM announced Thursday at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show, and which is about the size of two laptops stacked on top of each other, and is based on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Ride Platform.

According to GM, the computer, which has the processing power of hundreds of personal computers, features a Snapdragon SA8540P system-on-chip paired with an SA9000P AI accelerator. This powerful combination provides the bandwidth needed for ultra-cruise sensing, perception, planning, localization, mapping, and driver monitoring. This is a very large number of tasks, all of which need to be completed repeatedly in a fraction of a second.

According to GM, the computer can also be updated via wireless software updates, making it future-proof for further advances in GM's automated driving technology.

The first vehicle to feature Ultra Cruise will be GM's Cadillac brand. The system will eventually be expanded to more automaker brands, although the timing is unknown.

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