GM rolled out the IntelliLink system. The system connects wirelessy to your smartphone and provides voice-activated access to phone and audio functions. It’s the latest example of the growing number of in-vehicle smartphone connectivity systems.

The IntelliLink system turns the vehicle infotainment display into a smartphone-like interface with a configurable series of icons. The system integrates a voice control function that allows drivers to place a phone call and request a specific artist or song without pulling their hands or eyes from their respective driving duties.

In terms of music, IntelliLink offers several options. Drivers don’t need a proper MP3 player to enjoy digital music and can simply plug a music-loaded flash drive into the USB port in the center console. The system also allows for wireless Bluetooth streaming from services like Stitcher and Pandora when paired with a smartphone. It displays album and artist information streamed from the Gracenote database on the seven-inch color display.

"Gracenote is typically limited to devices plugged in to the USB port," said GM lead engineer Tony Kraatz. "With IntelliLink, we are the first company to run Bluetooth streaming audio through the Gracenote database to display album art for music players connected wirelessly."

Unlike some other systems available on cars today, the IntelLink system does not include any type of voice-activated text messaging or social networking features.

A public relations rep for GM told that the IntelLink system will be shared between GMC and Buick. It will be standard equipment on all Buick sedans and will be offered as an option on the GMC Terrain and Acadia. Chevy offers the MyLink, which is based on the same technology as the IntelLink system, while Cadillac has its own independent connectivity system called CUE.

General Motors is joining the sub-compact SUV B-segment with an all new car – the Mokka. While it’s to be shown as the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka Concept at the Geneva Motor Show in March, GM has announced that it will be available before the of this year.

The Mokka will be available in either front- or four-wheel drive, with a pick of three engines – a 115 bhp 1.6-litre, a turbo 140 bhp 1.4-litre or a turbo 1.7-litre CDTI diesel with 130 bhp and oodles of torque, the latter two with either six-speed manual or six-speed auto transmissions.

The new small SUV will be sold under Opel in Europe and Vauxhall in the U.K., enabling General Motors to participate in new market territory. It’s a very relevant territory for the company that wrestled back the global number one crown during Toyota’s problems with the earthquake in Japan, because it means the company will be building a new and important sales category.

The compact SUV is an urban vehicle – despite all the pictures of couples having fun in the great outdoors in their SUVs you see in advertising, more than 95 percent of SUVs never see the environment they are built to traverse – they are a fashion statement. With compact and frugal now in vogue, and a compact that comfortably seats five, the small trendy SUV is a class for the future.

The Mokka will feature class-first lighting technologies in the form of its Advanced Adaptive Forward Lighting (AFL+) and High Beam Assist (HBA), plus a new generation of the Opel/Vauxhall front camera system, which by virtue of image processing adds Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Forward Collision Alert (FCA) and second generation Traffic Sign Recognition.

With General Motors last year announcing its intention to roll out Chevrolet across Korea, this year’s Seoul Motor Show has seen the unveiling of a slick hybrid roadster concept developed by the GM Advanced Design Studio in Seoul to celebrate Chevrolet’s 100-year heritage and showcase future design possibilities for the brand. The Mi-ray, which is apparently Korean for ‘future’, is a small open top vehicle that boasts an aerodynamic body that GM says is reminiscent of modern jet fighters.

Exterior

The Mi-ray’s body is made of carbon fiber and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), with scissor doors and a dual port grille flanked by LED headlights with daytime running lamps. The vehicle’s front and rear fenders are designed to evoke the look of Chevrolet Corvettes of the past, while carbon-fiber spoilers at the rear corners are designed to help control downforce and airflow.

Additional airflow control is also provided by retractable flaps that also provide access to the vehicle’s charge port on one side and the fuel filler on the other. In a nice touch, the charge port also features an external battery charge indicator. There’s also cargo space for storing small items in the rear fenders, while the aluminum-carbon fiber composite 20-inch wheels in the front and 21-inch wheels in the rear are designed to evoke a sense of movement even when the car is stationary.

Interior

Inside the designers have also turned to jet fighters for inspiration with a combination of brushed aluminum, leather, white fabric and liquid metal surfaces. The interior compartment is surrounded by a carbon fiber twin cockpit shell that tightly wraps around the driver and passenger and connects to the seat cushions and headrests, which are mounted on a single aluminum rail.

The information panel uses back projection and prioritizes information for the driver into three zones. Front and center is vehicle performance, with navigation and mileage figures flanked on either side. The jet aircraft-inspired touches continue with a centrally located start button that triggers the column-mounted retractable meter cluster to rise "like a fighter jet canopy" when pressed.

Replacing the traditional rearview mirrors are retractable cameras that electrically extend from the side glass, while the forward-facing camera works with the GPS to overlay navigation information on real-time video.

Under the hood

Fittingly for a concept vehicle, the Mi-ray features a concept "mid-electric" propulsion system that is located primarily behind and beneath the driver. For city driving there are two front-mounted 15 kW electric motors powered by a 1.6 kWh lithium-ion battery, which can combine with the Mi-ray’s 1.5-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine mounted behind the cockpit when a little extra grunt is required. With the electric motor driving the front wheels and the engine driving the rear wheels, the Mi-ray can switch between front- and rear-wheel drive, while when working together, torque control is provided to both left and right wheels as needed.

To achieve a reduction in the size of the vehicle’s powertrain by eliminating the torque converter the Mi-ray sports a dual-clutch transmission (DCT) that has been tuned for improved top speed in performance mode and works in conjunction with a start-stop system. GM says the Mi-ray gets 60 mpg (unadjusted) for city driving and 63 mpg (unadjusted) on the highway.

GM unveiled Mi-ray last week at the 2011 Seoul Motor Show, which runs until April 10, at the Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX).

Computers continue to get exponentially faster, not to mention considerably smarter through improved software, whereas humans are effectively nearing their limits. Hence, it’s arguably only a matter of time and R&D focus before computers (plus improved sensors and software) surpass any specific human capability. This week Audi revealed that its Autonomous TTS research car had completed the 12.42-mile Pike’s Peak mountain course in 27 minutes. An expert driver in the same car would take around 17 minutes – now we have a benchmark, the race is on, and it’s almost inevitable that a computer will one day outdrive the best of our species, and it may be sooner than you think.

Humans are not very good at driving cars, as is evidenced by our ability to destroy 1.3 million souls on our roads each year. Our deficiencies for the task of safely controlling a car on public throughfares are many. We are almost incapable of driving safely while multitasking, are ridiculously easily distracted, take all manner of mind-altering substances before we drive, continually take imprudent risks and our situational awareness is largely restricted to our field of vision, which is but a sliver of the ideal 360 degrees.

By comparison, computers can monitor a full 360 degrees plus thousands of variables simultaneously, are diligent and attentive in the extreme, and calculate each and every risk, erring on the side of caution to exactly the degree to which they are programmed.

That’s why Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen are spending so much money in the field of autonomous vehicles – autonomous vehicle expertise is already being used to make us safer in our cars and over the next few decades, the deployment of more and better intelligent automotive systems will help to stop us committing genocide on such a grand scale.

Hence the ascending of the demanding Pikes Peak mountain course by Audi’s autonomous TTS in September is a significant achievement in that it sets the benchmark, visible for the first time, as to how close autonomous vehicle are to the best human drivers. It might seem like a lot of difference in the times between an expert driver and a computer in the TTS (17 minutes compared to 27 minutes), but I must confess to being staggered that the autonomous vehicle was immediately so close to the theoretical best – roughly an extra 59% over the fastest time of the best human driver. In Grand Prix racing, where the best drivers and riders in the world compete, lap time differentials of 7.5% are allowed by regulation, and quite often greater differences are tolerated.

The 265 bhp research car has been cooperatively developed by Volkswagen/Audi in conjunction with Stanford University and Oracle, and it is unquestionably progressing at a phenomenal rate. The 27 minute time was achieved the first time the vehicle achieved the 14,110-foot summit in Colorado without stopping. Five other times during the week-long testing, the car ran the complete course, pausing briefly to verify route data. It is most likely to get much faster very quickly.

Admittedly, it’s still a long way from cracking the ten minute mark being approached by Monster Tajima in his 900 bhp Suzuki, but a significant start has been made and the approach has been far more cautious than the way humans tackle timed courses. It’s an old racing adage that it’s a lot easier to make a fast driver who crashes safe than to make a slow driver faster. The penalty for error on Pikes Peak is massive as the edge of the circuit is often a massive cliff. Audi is logically taking a cautious and considered approach because the negative publicity of a car plunging over a fatal drop would hinder the development.

Volkswagen’s Electronic Research Lab and Stanford have been at the forefront of autonomous driving research for several years, having won the second DARPA Grand Challenge and finishing second in the most recent DARPA Urban Challenge held in Victorville, California in 2007.

From the Audi press statement: The Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak reflects the ERL-Stanford strategy of conducting research in tiers that thoroughly investigate technologies needed to perform different autonomous driving tasks ranging from low-speed maneuvering in urban environments to high-speed handling on varied road surfaces on a challenging course like Pikes Peak.

When research began on the Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak research project just over a year ago, the direction was clear: employ emerging software, algorithms and electronics to help everyday drivers stay in control, and safely on the road, even during extreme driving conditions.

The aim of the Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak research was to develop a technology that would enhance a driver’s abilities, much as computerized systems of passenger jetliners assist skilled pilots.

“We are not trying to replace the driver,” said Professor Chris Gerdes of Stanford University, “Instead we want to learn how the best drivers control the car so we can develop systems that assist our robotic driver and, eventually, you and me.” Working together, Audi, Stanford University, the Volkswagen Group Electronics Research Lab and Oracle developed a distinct engineering achievement. The Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak integrates advanced algorithms, the Oracle Java real-Time System (Java RTS), Oracle Solaris and GPS with safety and navigation systems found in stock Audi TTS models to maintain control at a physical performance extreme.

Java and Oracle Solaris provide a significant advancement over traditional execution models in terms of reliability, transparency, debugging capability, programming model, predictable response-time characteristics, and cost. Using the standard Java programming model and memory management functionality, developers were able to program the Autonomous Audi TTS to easily differentiate processes based on their importance and precisely determine when time-critical functions should be executed.

“Oracle Java RTS is the first enterprise-class solution to formally address the issues of latency and unpredictable response times for Java applications and we’re thrilled to be part of this research project,” said Greg Bollella, chief architect, Embedded Java, Oracle. “For the Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak, Java was used to acquire GPS position coordinates and distribute those coordinates to all of the other components in the system. It also served as the safety controller for the vehicle, responsible for gracefully bringing the car to a stop if any of the traditional systems malfunctioned.”

Deciding on a location to prove the technology was an easy choice as the Pikes Peak route offered steep inclines, switchbacks and varied road surfaces for the autonomous Audi TTS to navigate. Pikes Peak is also the place where Audi technology became legendary in the rally racing world a generation ago thanks in large part to the distinctive quattro® technology, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary as a technological all-wheel-drive breakthrough exclusively on Audi vehicles.

The Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak achieved this year’s goal on the mountain. The next stage of the research project will involve autonomous high-speed handling on paved surfaces. The research team is evaluating race tracks where they can conduct the next phase of this research.

In keeping with all trials of the technology, the Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak research team worked with local authorities to conduct the mountain testing during closed-course runs that emphasized public safety.

To celebrate its accomplishment, Audi is featuring the Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak at its inaugural display at the SEMA Show, which begins today in Las Vegas. ENDS

This is just the start. It’s an enormously significant event and a milestone on the road to much safer automobiles. Hats off to Audi, Stanford and Oracle for the achievement. We look forward to watching the progress and wonder not just how long it will take for a suitably equipped car to be able to best a Sebastien Vettel or Lewis Hamilton, but how long before drivers are judged by how close they can get to the “ideal time” set by a computer.

Indeed, it’s a fascinating mental exercise to imagine the future of racing altogether – do computers have a place in motorsport? We’re increasingly seeing F1 teams such as Ferrari employ simulators to hone their drivers and to test changes – it’s not such a big step from advanced driving aids to fully autonomous any more.