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GM Says It Will Put Fleets of Self-Driving Cars In Cities In 2019 (detroitnews.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the wishful-thinking dept.

General Motors has laid out a plan to not only mass-deploy self-driving cars on public roads in 2019, but to do it profitably. "With a driverless ride-hailing service as its framework, GM is counting on cost reductions, advancements in autonomous technologies and growth of the ride-hailing market to enable a successful self-driving car launch in 2019," reports The Detroit News. From the report: The automaker is using the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt as its autonomous mule, dovetailing Thursday's autonomous projection with GM's earlier vow to roll out a profitable electric vehicle platform by 2021. "For GM to get the benefit they're looking for, they need these cars on the road at scale as soon as possible," said Navigant Research analyst Sam Abuelsamid. "With ride-hailing services, consumers are saved from sticker shock of how much an EV costs -- and the cost of automation in early years is going to be expensive, too." GM didn't say exactly where it plans to launch its driverless ride-hailing service, but identified "dense urban environments" in the presentation. The Detroit automaker's testbeds for the self-driving Bolt are in Warren, San Francisco and Scottsdale, Arizona.

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. I read this as "GM says it will kill many and dama by tomservo84 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A Lot of Property in 2019" I especially like the part about "For GM to get the benefit they're looking for, they need these cars on the road at scale as soon as possible," Yes, because rushing code to production is ALWAYS a good idea, especially when it involves large heavy objects that can kill.

    --
    Agile Spaceport - You will never find a more wretched hive of scrum and villainy. We must be cautious.
  2. Show me one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    ^^^

    That's capable of actual autonomous driving in a city without running people over, halting regular traffic unexpectedly (read: dangerously) , causing jams or killing just all the cyclists.

  3. Re: How many people by orlanz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dear Horsebuggy Driver,

    I am not sure if you are talking about the cottengin, steam engine, train, steam car, motorcycle, mainframe, corn harvester, wind farm, aeroplane, iPhone, or Pokémon Go.

    Could you clarify?

  4. Re:What if self-driving cars turn into an OS/2 flo by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When human drivers kill 40,000 people a year in the US, but autonomous solutions "only" kill 30,000 people a year due to avoidable glitches, Greed will still arrogantly sell that as a win.

    In my book, that is a win. And if the glitches were avoidable, that's even better, because that means the numbers will only go down in the future.