SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Hyundai has announced what it says is the world’s first adaptive cruise control system that uses artificial intelligence to learn the driver’s habits and patterns.
By combining Machine Learning with its Smart Cruise Control, Hyundai hopes to create a system that drivers are likely to use more frequently because it reacts the same way that they do and feels more natural.
For this purpose, Hyundai divides driving patterns into three categories: distance from vehicles ahead; pace of acceleration and how quickly it responds to driving conditions. SCC-ML distinguishes over 10 000 different patterns, which can be used to adapt to any driver.
For example, the system could be programmed to maintain a short following distance during slow urban driving, but a larger one when cruising on the highway. Of course, driving conditions are considered too, and the system has been specifically programmed to avoid driving patterns that are unsafe, such as short following distances on the freeway.
The end result is that this driving system, which achieves Level 2.5 self-driving capability, drives autonomously in an identical style to the driver.
“In order to operate the previous Smart Cruise Control, the driver manually adjusted driving patterns, such as the distance from the preceding vehicle and acceleration. It was impossible to meticulously fine-tune the settings to accommodate the diver’s individual preferences without machine learning technology,” Hyundai said.
“For instance, even the same driver may accelerate differently in high-speed, mid-speed and low-speed environments depending on circumstance, but detailed fine-tuning was not available. Therefore, when Smart Cruise Control was activated and the vehicle operated differently than they prefer, drivers, sensed the difference, resulting in a reluctance to use the technology because it made them feel anxious and unstable.”
Hyundai says the new SCC-ML system will find its way into future Hyundai, Genesis and Kia branded vehicles.
