General Motors has filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a groundbreaking vehicle-control system that proactively helps drivers navigate challenging environmental conditions, such as wind gusts. Unlike current systems that react only after a condition occurs, GM’s system collects data from social media, crowdsourcing, and other sources to anticipate and address potential driving hazards.
GM’s Solution To Current Limitations
Current vehicle-control systems such as stability control, trailer-sway assist, and crosswind assist, react to physical changes in conditions to correct vehicle behavior. This means that the undesired condition – such as a deflection, a sway, or a driving instability – must first start to occur before a vehicle’s driver assists can start to correct them.
GM says that current systems can be improved with the addition of more inputs, such as:
- Data collected from additional vehicle sensors
- Crowdsourced data
- Information obtained from social media
- Other possible sources of weather data and information on roadway conditions
How It Will Work
Because modern cars are always connected and online, additional information sources are available to vehicle systems. Crowdsourced data – such as what is already currently available from traffic-navigation systems such as Waze – can provide a vehicle with information on weather conditions and roadway conditions. GM even proposes using social media to collect information, possibly referring to platforms such as X and Facebook, using accounts that frequently post updated environmental and road data for specific areas.
GM also talks about a shared map of “road criticality” for a specific area, to determine the severity of wind or weather impact on the vehicle to assist the vehicle-control system by responding with the appropriate action, such as:
- Applying a steering torque
- Responding to wind gusts or crosswinds
- Providing speed-limit suggestions
- Display specific warnings to the driver
Key Features
What makes GM’s patent different is the following:
- The presence of a controller to receive weather and roadway-condition data
- The ability to assess and determine the criticality of received data
- The inclusion of a shared road criticality map for a geographic area
- The ability to invoke vehicle-control systems as needed based on the above
