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GM Expands Testing, Production of Self-Driving Cars In Michigan (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the next-generation-of-transportation dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Thursday the automaker will expand testing of self-driving vehicles to Michigan, and will build its next generation of self-driving cars in the Michigan plant that builds the Chevrolet Bolt electric car. GM has been accelerating its efforts to deploy self-driving cars, earlier this year buying autonomous driving startup Cruise Automation. GM and Cruise engineers have been testing self-driving prototypes in Arizona and California. Rivals, including Ford Motor Co, Uber Technologies and Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving car unit, are also testing autonomous vehicles on public roads in various states and countries. Barra used a press conference at the company's Detroit headquarters to show off an electric Chevrolet Bolt equipped with roof-top sensors designed to enable autonomous driving. GM executives have said the automaker could eventually deploy self driving electric cars in fleets managed by its ride services partner, Lyft. However, Barra did not address Lyft in her remarks Thursday.

31 comments

  1. We're all going to die by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On the roads.

    1. Re:We're all going to die by bobbied · · Score: 1, Insightful

      On the roads.

      Or on the sidewalks and in the cross walks when there is a sensor malfunction.

      Can we say LAWSUITS? This will be an interesting bit of product safety litigation that won't soon go away. It will keep an army of lawyers and "expert witnesses" employed for decades. I think I need to get an AI degree and some experience in self driving cars so I can collect some the bundles of cash that will be forthcoming for "experts" in the field.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  2. Can it do intersections? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they can make one that doesn't run red lights, maybe Uber would be interested.

    1. Re:Can it do intersections? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      I wonder who got the ticket for that?

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Can it do intersections? by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      Even if they do eventually get it to do intersections, will it ever be able to handle Michigan winters? Imagine - sensors covered with frost in the mornings and covered with all that road sludge during the day. Night driving in winter could be deadly.

    3. Re:Can it do intersections? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good thing you brought that up. I'm sure GM hasn't really thought about Michigan winters.

    4. Re:Can it do intersections? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if they do eventually get it to do intersections, will it ever be able to handle Michigan winters? Imagine - sensors covered with frost in the mornings and covered with all that road sludge during the day. Night driving in winter could be deadly.

      Once the car realizes it's in Michigan, it will just drive itself to California.

    5. Re:Can it do intersections? by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 2

      I'd like to see it try a Michigan left, even during summer.

      --
      "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
    6. Re:Can it do intersections? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      That's what I'd do, at least until summer.

    7. Re:Can it do intersections? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      Well, I know this is a crazy idea, but the sensor could note when it can't "see" clearly and notify the driver. So you come out to your frozen car and turn it on and, damn it, have to drive it yourself. Or you could, you know, clean off the sensors. They put these things on my car to clean the windshield--maybe they could do something similar with the sensors.

      As someone below noted, I'm sure these things are being considered. It'll be interesting to see what solution they come up with.

    8. Re:Can it do intersections? by vtcodger · · Score: 1

      "Well, I know this is a crazy idea, but the sensor could note when it can't "see" clearly and notify the driver."

      The rear proximity sensors on my wife's 2013 Hyundai do exactly that. I would assume other current vehicles do the same thing.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    9. Re:Can it do intersections? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      I wonder who got the ticket for that?

      When the Uber SDC ran the red light, it was under human control and the SDC capability was not active. So the human driver was at fault. No one was ticketed, because the violation was recorded by a bystander, not the police.

    10. Re:Can it do intersections? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So when a sensor that the car relies on to make progress gets a mud splat over it does the car pull over to the side of the road and ask you to wipe it clean? Or will every sensor on the car also have to have a cleaning mechanism? And surely that cleaning mechanism will have to clean the sensor perfectly, every time?

    11. Re: Can it do intersections? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Have you driven in winter? I'm not buying a car that has a remote chance of stopping and forcing me to walk through ankle deep dirty slush to wipe something off. Defeats the point of the self driving.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    12. Re: Can it do intersections? by tomhath · · Score: 1

      So buy a car that you drive, oh wait...

  3. And in other news.... by mnemotronic · · Score: 1

    Jaguar announced that it has completed designs for a self-assembling car. It builds itself, transports itself to the dealer, sells itself, obtains it's own financing, then drives it's new owner home. At that point it's up to the new owner to drive it back to the dealer to repair the electronics.

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
    1. Re:And in other news.... by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Jaguar announced that it has completed designs for a self-assembling car. It builds itself, transports itself to the dealer, sells itself, obtains it's own financing, then drives it's new owner home. At that point it's up to the new owner to drive it back to the dealer to repair the electronics.

      In Detroit, getting a Jag safely home is no minor feat.... The locals would have it on blocks and stripped in less than one cycle of the traffic light if it's the Detroit city I know and love but refuse to visit after dark or unarmed.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  4. No mention of tesla by WindBourne · · Score: 0

    How funny. Tesla is the furthest ahead and put all those companies to shame for not doing anything. Now, the old car makers are way behind.

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    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:No mention of tesla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Weak troll.

    2. Re:No mention of tesla by MouseR · · Score: 1

      Yeah seriously. Musk Oil, anyone?

      Look, Tesla might look like it has a serious contender to automagically drive you onto the crossing semi truck but that's just LARPing to the real thing.

      So much as I hate Google, they have the only system which I'd trust: lidar vision. THAT makes it viable. Not dinky cameras all around the car that fail once it loosed the lines on the ground.

  5. Feel good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    GM can't engineer an ignition switch but I'm sure that they have this self-driving car stuff nailed.

    1. Re:Feel good by vtcodger · · Score: 1

      I'm told GM has changed it's ways. Of course, they've been telling us that for four decades or so. But maybe it really is different this time.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
  6. I sure am glad by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    we don't have anything to worry about vis-a-vis self driving cars and their negative effect on the jobs. Since it's not like there are 2-3 stories a day about how the technology is progressing. Sure is great that nothing in human civilization ever changes, and that even if it did we'd approach those changes like rational, decent creatures and wouldn't descend into a terrifying dystopian society of haves and have nots just because the ruling class had no need for the working class. Yep. Boy am I glad that Luddite is just a slur with no historical context whatsoever and that it didn't take the economy 80 years to catch up to the industrial revolution ushering in decades of unemployment, poverty, starvation and social unrest. Let the good times roll, forever.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  7. can it do more then the speed limit? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    can it do more then the speed limit?

    I don't want this crap doing 55 on I-294

    1. Re:can it do more then the speed limit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not only will your automated car exceed 55 for you, it will also insert itself into the half-car-length gap between two snail-racing trucks, pass through and hit the jersey barrier on the side of the road, then bounce back and launch itself into the right side of the truck it just cut off.

    2. Re:can it do more then the speed limit? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      can it do more then the speed limit?

      Tesla Autopilot will exceed the speed limit if the driver requests it to. I don't see why this would be any different. Tesla Autopilot will limit the speed to 5mph over the limit on residential streets, but I don't think there is any specific limit for highway driving. I usually go about 10mph over for highway driving. Any slower than that, and I get flipped off too much.

    3. Re:can it do more then the speed limit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At a TED talk this year they said the Google Driverless car follows the law exactly. So no it won't speed. Right now because the care is still under the drive'rs control Tesla can program whatever they want, but I suspect once the law actually allows the driver-less mode to take legal control the software will be required to follow the law.

  8. Chevy Bolt? by FrankHaynes · · Score: 2

    GM makes a car name the Chevrolet Bolt?? That's itterly Usain!

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    slashdot: A failed experiment.
    1. Re:Chevy Bolt? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      GM makes a car name the Chevrolet Bolt?? That's itterly Usain!

      It's still quite unclear how Chevrolet decided that having a car called the Volt and a car called the Bolt in their lineup at the same time, but that's what they did.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  9. Michigan is a perfect place for this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Michigan is a perfect place for this testing. We can watch as the terrorists living in Dearborn rig them with bombs and set them to drive on sidewalks until they reach the homes of infidels, where they will detonate.

    Then we can simultaneously outlaw these stupid self-driving death machines, permanently jail the terrorists who rigged them and deport the rest. Hopefully into space towards the sun.