General Motors held the first of what is planned to become an annual conference on automotive innovation in Herzliya, Israel. The June 16 conference, “Cognitive Cars: Driving the Future,” featured lectures by GM staff from the United States and local Israeli research partners, and a showcase of experimental vehicles.
GM’s vice president of global research and development, Alan Taub, spoke in the keynote address about the auto industry’s development and the company’s vision for the future of automobiles.
“The first line in the mission of the new General Motors is ‘to lead the industry in advanced technology.’ If you consider all the challenges that are going on today, that really is a major initiative.
“We are reinventing every part of the vehicle. In order to accomplish that, the research laboratories lead the front end of that innovation process,” he said.
GM opened its Israel center two years ago (one of eight worldwide). “We are proud that this is the first true scientific research laboratory for automotive OAMs [Operations, Administration and Maintenance] in the country,” noted Taub.
“The key is that we need to hire your best and brightest. Both the people that you educated and then sent around the world, so that they’ll return to Israel, and the students that you’re creating today.”
Taub said GM’s goal “is to tap all the technology, intelligence and knowledge that exists in Israel as we try to satisfy our mission of making the world’s best vehicles.”
Taub spoke about the evolution of the automotive industry, the challenges encountered and the ways GM faced them — from the introduction of safety features and reducing tailpipe emissions to developing electric vehicles that will one day drive autonomously.
After the first autonomous feature, the antilock braking system (ABS), was introduced in the 1970s, Taub said, automotive companies and drivers began to understand computers could do certain tasks better than humans.
“That was the beginning of a march toward vehicles that not only will be stable but will not crash. If you look at the vehicles around the world today, you are beginning to see the march — first toward warning, and in some cases intervention,” he said.
“The fact is, we are learning how to point the vehicle in the direction the person’s trying to go and using sensors to determine what’s around. We are on the march toward vehicles that first of all won’t crash and at the same time will drive themselves. They use the exact same technology.”
Visitors to the conference got a glimpse of that future in the form of “The Boss.” Named after GM’s first research and development chief, Charles “Boss” Kettering, the Boss is an experimental self-driving vehicle featuring dozens of sensors and other electronic devices mounted on the body of a Chevrolet Tahoe.
The Boss is able to drive, park and negotiate intersections — all without the aid of human intervention. A joint design of GM and Carnegie Mellon University, it proved its abilities when it beat out 10 other robotic vehicles to win the 2007 U.S. Defense Department’s urban challenge.
One goal of GM’s Israeli Advanced Technology Center is to take the experimental features on the Boss and adapt them for standard vehicles at affordable prices.
“It costs between $250,000 and $500,000 to produce a single vehicle like the Boss. The real technological challenge is to take systems that cost that much and reduce them to $25,000,” said Gil Golan, GM’s Israel site director.
“Every sensor on that car costs $3,200. The next generation of sensors costs $70. But that still doesn’t solve our problem. We need a sensor that costs $7 or $8.
“The trick is to leapfrog the technology. We are currently part of an ongoing global initiative by GM and its partners to make the technology more reliable, more doable and more affordable.”
Golan said the Israeli team was joining the effort on two main fronts: active safety systems and human-machine interface.
“Israel has an incredible amount of human talent in the fields we require and also has a very conducive high-tech environment,” Golan said.
“Being here, we enjoy the benefit of working with some of the world class leaders, both in academia and in industry.”
On the other hand, he continued, “we have invested a lot of money here in Israel and introduced the local market to a sector that had not been in existence here before. The fact that GM opened a facility here exposes local researchers and industry people to a huge industry with lots of resources.”
Representing the Israeli government at the conference was Eli Opper, chief scientist of the Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor. Opper said the three pillars of his office’s work are bridging the gap between industry and academia, strengthening international relationships and focusing on preferred sectors.
The GM site in Israel answered all three of the principles, Opper said, adding that he hoped partnerships like it would one day lead to technological breakthroughs that are as yet unimaginable.