Hyundai Self-Driving Cars

Hyundai Proves We’re Closer to Self-Driving Cars Than We Thought:

We’ve often said that the road to fully autonomous driving is paved with small, incremental steps. In fact, if you’ve purchased a new car in the last few years the chances are you’ve got some form of semi-autonomous driving technology already in your car, be it adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning or emergency braking.

Those last two — the ones which hopefully stop you from having a major accident — aren’t probably what you’d think of as self-driving technology. Put them in the right environment with some tweaks, and you’d be forgiven for thinking your car is already safer than you behind the wheel.

In fact, if you take one look at Hyundai’s latest ad for its 2015 Genesis, entitled The Empty Car Convoy, (via Autoblog) you’d be easily forgiven for thinking Hyundai is bringing an autonomous car to market this year.

On a closed track, a team of stunt drivers driving multiple 2015 Hyundai Genesis Sedans engage both Hyundai’s Advanced Smart Cruise Control and a modified version of its Lane Keeping Assist System — a technology designed to gently help lane-drifting drivers back into the centre of their lane. One by one, they climb out of the sunroof and leap for safety onto a specially-prepared truck driving alongside the cars, while the lead driver calmly lets go of the steering wheel, puts on a blind fold, and crosses his arms.

Moments later, after illustrating the cars following the lead vehicle around a curved section of track, the truck — now at the head of the convoy — pulls an emergency stop manoeuvre. One by one, the cars all stop safely, using Hyundai’s Automatic Emergency Braking system to stop them from hitting the car in front.

No-one is hurt, no cars are damaged, and Hyundai’s goal — to demonstrate its latest safety technology — is complete.

Understandably, Hyundai goes to great lengths in its ad to reiterate that its cars were modified for the stunt (LKAS was modified to never turn off), driving aids are never a substitute for safe driving, and you should (obviously) never leap out of your moving car, especially if you’re the driver. Aside from those obvious observations however, the reason we’re excited about this ad is that it demonstrates how close we really are to self-driving technology without even thinking about it.