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GM Plans To Build, Test Thousands of Self-Driving Bolts In 2018 (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sooner-than-expected dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: General Motors Co plans to deploy thousands of self-driving electric cars in test fleets in partnership with ride-sharing affiliate Lyft Inc, beginning in 2018, two sources familiar with the automaker's plans said this week. It is expected to be the largest such test of fully autonomous vehicles by any major automaker before 2020, when several companies have said they plan to begin building and deploying such vehicles in higher volumes. Most of the specially equipped versions of the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle will be used by San Francisco-based Lyft, which will test them in its ride-sharing fleet in several states, one of the sources said. GM has no immediate plans to sell the Bolt AV to individual customers, according to the source. In a statement on Friday, GM said: "We do not provide specific details on potential future products or technology rollout plans. We have said that our AV technology will appear in an on-demand ride sharing network application sooner than you might think."

3 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Misleding headline by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 3, Funny

    GM Plans To Build, Test Thousands of Self-Driving Bolts In 2018

    I forgot that they had a car named "Bolt" and thought they were taking about the fastener. A bolt that could turn itself and tighten to the proper amount of torque would be pretty cool. Granted, it would probably be prohibitively expensive, and not really make a lot of sense, but cool none the less.

  2. Sooo by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are all of the passengers in these self driving cars going to be neat and tidy? Without a semblance of someone being in charge of the car, I think the future od driverless cars might have the unmistakable reek of shit and piss. I don't know is this particular startup is going to be sans a person that sits there and does nothing, but this will be an issue some day. people sans supervision do some odd things.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:Sooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      People ride "driverless" elevators everyday without shitting or pissing in them. Why would horizontal movement be so different from vertical movement?

      Unlike an elevator, to get into a self-driving-taxi you will need to provide a CC#, or an account number linked to your identity. Your behavior in the vehicle will be recorded by one or more $5 cameras. If you soil the seats, your account will be debited, as you agreed when you clicked on the TOS.

      Apparently most people on Slashdot have no idea what goes on in Ubers.

      Uber works by accounts: the rider has already put their CC in; Uber knows who the responsible person is.
      You just have no idea what these NON-anonymous people typically do.

      Speaking as an Uber driver... The cameras will have to do quite a lot of AI in order to catch all the things
      that passengers routinely do to my car. Vomiting (leaking and trying to hide it, just onto the floormats
      and carpets where it can marinate and cook for a few hours, or projectile all over the place and down
      nside the windows and cracks), wiping snot on the seats, along with deliberate (knife) destruction
      such as ripping and tearing...there is no end to it. Every week, I have to go out of service for the rest of the
      night to attempt to clean the vehicle. Also, who is going to clean up the spilled alcohol and other drinks,
      the pizza debris, and all the other crap? What about dealing with all the people getting in who has pissed
      or shat themselves? Even having been there the whole time on the trip, we have to inspect the car after each
      customer, to see what fun there has been. Who will pick up the discarded snot tissues,
      medical bandage waste, and the empty beer and soda bottles stuffed into the door pockets?
      These things are simple for a human.

      How will the car manage to evict the passenger who has fallen asleep?
      Are they totally drunk? Do they need help? Are they sick? Dead?

      Lots of people get in the car totally drugged out of their minds one way or another,
      and have no idea where they are or what's going on.

      Who will stop the customers from having oral and copulation sex during the rides?
      People try that all the time, too and yes it leaves...residues.

      You think taxicabs are nasty and dirty? Prefer Uber because the car is nicer?
      Well, first of all that doesn't happen by itself.
      Wait till you get in a car that's only been supervised by a robot.
      (Second of all, there is a huge service cost in this part of the model, which is that
      Uber fires everyone (not me yet) after a while, in order to churn the fleet.
      Because new drivers brings new cars, while the previous ones have been slowly destroyed.)

      There are all just a tiny sampling of a half-zillion things that self-driving cars will need to do, that they cannot do yet,
      and that list is even larger and more difficult when there is no human owner-operator aboard, just JohnnyCab.
      We haven't even talked here about the actual ride, which is another half-zillion contingencies.

      Btw I'm in the Washington D.C. area - one of the highest paying Uber markets.
      I own my car, so after car expense (gas etc.), I am paid about 45 cents per mile.
      There are no benefits or other compensation of any kind.. That's before taxes.
      Most trips are 0.5 to 3.7 miles.
      Just so you know.