For Release: July 1, 2003

GM KEEPS IT IN-HOUSE

Behind GM's Gotta-Have Vehicles Is a Commitment to Develop the Industry's Most Comprehensive Portfolio of New and Future Electronic Controls

Every day, technology becomes more deeply rooted in our lives. Lightning-fast laptops. Picture-taking cell phones. Wireless everything. As your teenager might say, "Electronics rule."

Nobody knows that more than the engineers at GM. Some of the most sophisticated electronics currently available to consumers come standard in every new GM car or truck. And although many automotive electronics are designed to provide the same sort of comfort and convenience we've come to expect from the myriad other electronic devices we've invited into our daily routine, there's a distinction: a sonic toothbrush or a personal digital assistant isn't responsible for guiding us along a rain-slicked road at a mile a minute.

Integrating vehicle electronics is more than adding the latest feature to make your neighbors drool. GM vehicle controls engineers strive to deliver everything we expect from today's new vehicles. Outstanding performance and exciting new features are non-negotiable. Comfort and convenience? Of course. But also unflagging reliability, safety and security.

Driving is serious business. GM is equally resolute about its role as a designer, developer and implementer of some of today's most advanced electronic systems. The story of the technology behind GM's "gotta-have" cars and trucks is one of commitment to develop the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of new and future electronic controls.

Software becomes 'king'
It's not unusual for automakers to entrust the development of electronic systems and components - and more critically, the software coding that governs how these systems work - to outside sources. But GM has a longstanding reputation for nurturing its own "in-house" innovations, and hasn't backed away from the challenge of software engineering. Because cars and trucks will continue to rely on higher levels of electronic controls, GM has invested in a company-wide philosophy to develop software and, correspondingly, integrate the operation of the electronic systems controlled by that software.

As early as 1980, GM engineers recognized the potential advantage of so-called "vehicle controls integration," says Nick Zielinski, director of Vehicle and Technology Integration. "GM decided a number of years ago to make this integration capability a core competency," Zielinski says. "This core capability was built on GM's heritage of innovation, and gave our customers vehicle performance and features greater than their expectations, which ultimately resulted in a competitive advantage for GM.

"As we look to the future," he adds, "controls integration capability will provide the foundation for the introduction of new levels of vehicle performance. These performance levels will be enabled by well-integrated subsystems and their controls."

More features for more people in more segments than any other automaker
While many of GM's rivals - including some with lofty reputations for engineering prowess - continue to outsource software development, GM's chosen path means it can leverage an important advantage: once software is created and deployed for one vehicle line or brand, it then is easy and cost-effective to transfer that know-how to a variety of vehicles.

Other automakers who don't "own" the intellectual capacity behind their electronic controls generally must keep those systems in premium vehicles for a longer time because, amazingly, developing control software now is the most costly aspect of deploying the latest safety, performance and fuel-saving advances.

Bottom line? Delivering on the longstanding GM hallmark for value. By investing heavily in the intellectual property central to vehicle controls integration, says Zielinski, GM is able to provide "more features for more people in more market segments than any other automaker."

What's a moonshot got to do with starting your car?
The GM engineers and developers responsible for integrating the fascinating new technologies seen on many 2004 GM models - and some just over the horizon - work to enhance the "communication" between the vehicle's increasingly complex electronic systems. With backgrounds as diverse as the systems they seek to integrate, vehicle controls integration engineers make the most of GM's company-wide dedication to deliver the best possible technology for every vehicle line and every customer.

Consider GM's remote-start feature, available as the first factory-installed system that is integrated with the vehicle safety and security systems and is fully warranted by the vehicle manufacturer in the all-new 2004 Chevy Malibu. From the comfort and safety of an indoor location, the customer can use the Malibu's remote locking key fob to engage the engine, warming the vehicle in winter, cooling it in summer. Defogging misted windows. Pre-heating seats. All welcome comforts when conditions are extreme.

Remote start may appear to provide a straightforward function, says Scott A. McCullough, subsystem lead engineer. But the remote start system is much more effective and can include numerous extra features and safety advantages, says McCullough, because its developers enjoyed complete access to most of the vehicle's other systems and electronic controls.

McCullough says the instant the customer engages the remote start system, an intricate chorus of communication begins: the system checks with the Malibu's engine-management computer, assuring oil temperature, oil pressure and many other vehicle systems are within acceptable limits. For example, remote start "talks" to the wheel-speed sensors, assuring the vehicle is stationary, while simultaneously "locking out" the transmission to make sure the Malibu stays stationary while the engine is running.

Equally important is the remote start system's unrivaled security. It immediately locks the doors and coordinates with the Malibu's security system to ensure the vehicle is secure before the engine is started. Further, the Vehicle Theft Deterrent System is fully active before, during, and after a remote start. After being remote-started the vehicle cannot be driven away unless the key is placed into the ignition, turned on and the correct key code is detected. With GM's system there's no bypassing or compromising the vehicle theft system just to provide remote starting. There's even a hood-position switch; if the hood is in any position besides fully closed, the remote start is aborted. "There's so much more that's continuously monitored and offered by our remote start system and the aftermarket (remote-starting systems) can't touch that kind of integration," says McCullough.

"We can do pretty much anything we want thanks to vehicle controls integration," says McCullough. He should know - his mentorship in the philosophy behind remote start's complex serial data communication software began while he was at GM's former Delco Electronics Division. His mentor there was an engineer who worked in a systems group that worked on NASA's Apollo program to put the first man on the moon. Without an intensive understanding of controls integration, says McCullough, that history-making Apollo rocket never would have left the ground. It runs in the family, as McCullough was a third-generation Delco employee. (His grandmother worked on the microscopic welding of the Apollo circuit boards).

McCullough's background makes him a natural for GM's ongoing emphasis on retaining its software-development capacity: his qualifications include expertise in software coding and systems integration. When he came from Delco to what was then GM's Lansing automotive division, "Being part of a systems group, I had to understand it all: hardware and software."

Look, Ma, no hands - for real
Steering is a fundamental. Every vehicle needs to do it as one of its three basic dynamic actions: Go. Stop. Steer.

Just as "Go" and "Stop" have been elevated to an art form with innovative new engine- and braking-system controls, GM engineers have "Steer" firmly in their sights. Tom Zebehazy, manager of Advanced Chassis Technology Development, leads a team working to take the seemingly simple task of steering to an entirely new level.

Their project: "active front steering," a sophisticated system that lends a helping hand when things get tough.

Active front steering employs an electronically controlled motor, attached to the steering rack, to provide several different types of steering "help:" everything from firm control during evasive maneuvers to a gentle, extra assistance in tight parking situations - or future "lane departure" systems that monitor the vehicle's position within a driving lane and steer it back to center if it wanders.

Active front steering, says Zebehazy, is one of the ultimate expressions of what's possible with vehicle controls integration.

The best example of active front steering's potential, he says, is when the system is linked to the vehicle's stability control, the now-common system that brakes individual wheels to influence vehicle handling. Stability control is a wonderful safety feature, says Zebehazy - but couple the system with active front steering and it becomes markedly more effective.

Using the brakes to avoid a potential slide, today's stability control systems are extremely effective, but nonetheless limited by the dynamic forces of tire traction. "Under certain road conditions, a better way to bring a vehicle under control is to steer it back under control," Zebehazy asserts. By using information from other onboard sensors and systems - chiefly stability control in this case - active front steering instantaneously assumes steering control, countersteering the vehicle to bring it back on its intended course, blending in braking, if needed.

A potential accident is avoided.

Zebehazy, a 36-year GM veteran, was instrumental in developing the groundbreaking Quadrasteer four-wheel-steering system used on several GM pickups and SUVs. He says active front steering, because it is designed to harmonize with many other vehicle controls, is leading its developers to incorporate software coding from several different onboard systems. For example, active front steering can be used to enhance steering "feel" at high speed, where it is used to change the effective ratio of the power steering system, imparting better control while eliminating oversensitivity that can make long-distance driving so tiring.

At low speed, active front steering can modify the steering ratio to reduce turning effort, making it even easier to slide into that enticing but tight parking space.

But facilitating parking is relatively mundane compared to what Zebehazy and his team envision when active front steering, still a few years away, realizes its full promise. The system "has the capability to totally, independently steer the vehicle," he says. "If you got yourself in a predicament, active front steering can get us to the final point on the technology roadmap: collision avoidance."

Zebehazy says the ultimate goal is to merge several electronic controls in order to provide the ultimate in security: a vehicle using sophisticated sensors and systems that constantly monitors the driving environment, and when the situation turns foul, actively guides the vehicle to avoid the accident.

But vehicles that steer themselves? Isn't that a little too 1950s Popular Science?

Nobody's looking to automate driving just yet, Zebehazy insists. Even the team working on a system to steer your vehicle thinks driving should be engaging - fun, for goodness sake. Active front steering isn't seen as a way to automate - it's a way to elevate. Driving skills and safety, that is. "We're making the driver a better driver."

Cruise control on steroids
"You drive a vehicle with adaptive cruise control for two or three days, then you try to use 'base' cruise control - it's unusable in many situations," says Bill Job, design engineer - chassis electronics.

Job is the point man for adaptive cruise control, or ACC, as he likes to call it. The sophisticated new system, debuting on the '04 Cadillac XLR roadster, promises to make today's one-dimensional cruise control feature look only slightly more dated than, say, button-top shoes.

Adaptive cruise control uses a radar transmitter to "look" ahead of the vehicle in a field of vision approximately the width of a standard freeway lane. The driver sets the speed as he would with a conventional cruise control system - but if another vehicle or object comes into the radar transmitter's field of vision, ACC automatically slows the vehicle accordingly, with no input from the driver. Once the lane is "clear" again, ACC signals the engine to return to the originally set speed.

It sounds straightforward enough, but the devil is in the details, according to Job. ACC must integrate seamlessly with both the engine control unit and the brake controls. The driver will learn to rely on ACC to effortlessly slow the vehicle when slower traffic gets in the way, and then accelerate when the coast is clear. That sort of "trust" only comes with outstanding integration of electronic controls and systems.

"If you look at the system diagram, we're interfacing with six other control modules all over the vehicle," says Job. He says he has direct counterparts who develop the control logic for the engine-management and anti-lock braking systems, ensuring that the engine, brakes, and the new adaptive cruise control system are always on the best of speaking terms. "The heart of ACC resides in the controls integration between the radar, engine, and brake systems," he says.

Another important "partner" system for ACC is instrumentation. The XLR's adaptive cruise control has several driver-selectable parameters that govern important operational facets, such as desired following distance. By teaming with the car's advanced head-up display (HUD), the ACC engineers enjoy an extremely efficient method of delivering to the driver up-to-the-second information about ACC: the HUD projects the information directly onto the windshield, meaning the driver doesn't have to look to the instrument panel to assess ACC settings.

"Adaptive cruise control touches a lot of areas of the car," says Job, stressing the fundamental importance of having high-level ability to control vehicle speed. "It's really the first step in any type of future driver-assistance systems."

Head-up displays for earth-bound pilots
Car buyers often arrive at dealerships armed and ready for tough negotiations. But prior to coming to GM 12 years ago, Steven A. Stringfellow's customers literally were armed and ready. Stringfellow, lead displays engineer at the GM Electrical Center, spent six years at former GM subsidiary Hughes Aircraft, developing head-up displays, or HUDs, that project vital information directly onto helicopter helmet visors or aircraft holographic combiners.

The HUD beams graphic information to a point that seems to "float" in front of you, reducing the need to look down at the instrument panel. For pilots, HUDs were developed to deliver a split-second advantage that could be the difference between life or death.

For drivers, HUDs increase driver awareness - and reduce "eyes-off-road" time that could lead to an accident.

After buying Hughes, "one of the first technologies GM went after was the HUD," says Stringfellow, who's been continually working to refine HUDs since their industry-first application in the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass. He says the increasing number of sophisticated electronic systems in cars and trucks makes HUD a natural integration "enabler."

"There are things we can do now that we would not have considered if not for HUD," he says, citing new information sources like onboard navigation systems. Stringfellow says most of today's navigation systems require the driver to periodically consult an instrument panel-located screen to check a map or confirm an upcoming change in direction. But HUDs allow that information to be "floated" on the windshield near the driver's natural line of sight - the focal point is actually at the distance of the front bumper - eliminating the need to re-focus down onto a dashboard display.

"With our new HUD displays, it's possible to project turn-by-turn directions, even street names," says Stringfellow, who says the tie-in with navigation systems can eliminate the distracting - and often annoying - need to focus on small instrument-panel screens. And with the potential to display street names, the HUD can eliminate the often-unnerving search for street signs when traveling in unfamiliar areas.

If HUD is a natural fit with navigation systems, Stringfellow is even more excited about future integration with other vehicle systems as GM works to extend its leadership position.

"There's no better way to do adaptive cruise control - another advanced electronic system debuting this year on the Cadillac XLR - than with a HUD," he asserts. "It's a great meld of technologies." Not coincidentally, HUD is standard on the XLR.

And he says the HUD is ideally suited to display the occasional tell-tales for electronic controls like tire-pressure monitoring and future lane-keeping systems. He says the development engineers writing software for almost every control system in the vehicle will interface with HUD engineers to explore the best way to deliver information about those systems to the driver.

For Stringfellow, GM's drive for best-in-the-industry integration of vehicle electronic controls is a perfect fit for HUD. As vehicle systems become more sophisticated, so too is the need for improved driver information delivery- and that's what HUD brings to the party.

GM offers HUD on more vehicles than any other automaker - not just on high-end products like the XLR, but also on moderately priced vehicles such as the Pontiac Grand Prix. Stringfellow says the HUD is ordered in 90 percent of the Corvettes GM builds. Ever the champion of the technology he's spent decades to perfect, Stringfellow even is glad to hear GM's competitors may be preparing to use HUD.

"The world is recognizing the HUD as a beneficial safety technology. It's really going to take off."

# # #