Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GM Will Make an Autonomous Car Without Steering Wheel or Pedals By 2019 (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the next-up dept.

General Motors plans to mass-produce self-driving cars that lack traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals by 2019, the company announced today. From a report: It's a bold declaration for the future of driving from one of the country's Big Three automakers, and one that is sure to shake things up for the industry as the annual Detroit Auto Show kicks off next week. The car will be the fourth generation of its driverless, all-electric Chevy Bolts, which are currently being tested on public roads in San Francisco and Phoenix. And when they roll off the assembly line of GM's manufacturing plant in Orion, Michigan, they'll be deployed as ride-hailing vehicles in a number of cities. "It's a pretty exciting moment in the history of the path to wide scale [autonomous vehicle] deployment and having the first production car with no driver controls," GM President Dan Ammann told The Verge. "And it's an interesting thing to share with everybody."

32 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. I've got a bad feeling about this by npslider · · Score: 2

    That's no steering wheel, it's a docking station!

  2. Driverless car by Nukenbar · · Score: 2

    Does anyone really think they will be taking a driverless taxi/uber anywhere before 2025?

    1. Re:Driverless car by b0bby · · Score: 4, Informative

      Some people in Phoenix might be doing it in the next few months. Google/Waymo has the cars are seem to be almost ready to let users use them. GM is similarly planning to restrict the geographic areas for their trial, so I can see that it could happen.

    2. Re:Driverless car by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      A fully blown automated vehicle that's going cross on cross-country trips from arbitrary start and end points? Probably not.

      However, if you told me that some city had some kind of automated mini-cabs that could ferry people around certain parts of downtown or other restricted areas, I wouldn't be surprised in the least.

    3. Re:Driverless car by InvalidsYnc · · Score: 2

      Welcome to Johnny Cab!

    4. Re:Driverless car by Mkkby · · Score: 2

      Remember, this article is about a car WITHOUT MANUAL CONTROLS. On your cross country trip, how are you going to maneuver thru gas station lines, parking lots, drive thru's, etc.

      Yes, it's pretty easy to just send a computer down a freeway via GPS. But that last few meters of getting the car positioned correctly. Very hard without a human driver.

      Computer, park on the left side of the garage. Computer, park next to the second gas pump for regular unleaded. Answer... .

    5. Re:Driverless car by jrumney · · Score: 2

      Self parking was one of the first autonomous features available in production cars. It all happens at low speeds, and simply stopping if any input is unexpected is an option. In confined spaces, cameras and sonar are far more essential than GPS.

  3. I welcome this by gameboyhippo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Autoautomobiles will be a life changer for those with disabilities.

    1. Re:I welcome this by b0bby · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of my kids' friends has eyesight which precludes her from driving without some pretty major corrections. I half jokingly said she should just wait 5 years for self driving cars and she half jokingly replied that she was going to move to California to get one sooner. People with disabilities and the elderly are going to be helped a lot, but all of us will be helped by the lower chance of getting in an accident, lower insurance and health care costs, increased productivity, etc. I'm not sure if traffic will improve or get worse though.

    2. Re:I welcome this by Pascal+Sartoretti · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Autoautomobiles will be a life changer for those with disabilities.

      And for those who can't drive anymore (eldery people).

      And for those who can't drive yet (children under 18).

      And for those who fail the licence exam.

      And when you are drunk.

      Etc...

      When you add all these niches, you have a market.

    3. Re:I welcome this by b0bby · · Score: 2

      You don't think that with a drastic reduction in accidents auto insurance rates will come down? Or that taking away 2.5 million emergency room visits wouldn't lower health care costs? Insurance is a pretty rational game, when the expenses go down it's pretty easy to adjust rates.

  4. Within 2 years?! by the_skywise · · Score: 2

    (including end of 2019) I think they overestimate their chances!

    1. Re:Within 2 years?! by slew · · Score: 3, Interesting

      (including end of 2019)
      I think they overestimate their chances!

      Don't underestimate Detroit's ability to produce a car without a steering wheel, they've done it before...

    2. Re:Within 2 years?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ARTICLE: "General Motors plans to mass-produce self-driving cars that lack traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals by 2019"
      ACTUAL ANNOUNCEMENT: "General Motors has plans to begin producing a self-driving car by 2019. There will be an option to order the model without pedals or steering wheels"
      ENGINEERING WRITE-UP: "By late 2019 GM will have a prototype of an autonomous, self-driving car ready for mass production. And yes, autonomous would mean it would not need a steering wheel or pedals although those would, of course, be included."
      WHAT THE ENGINEERS ACTUALLY SAID: "I think that by early 2020 we could have enough of the self driving prototypes produced and ready for testing."

    3. Re:Within 2 years?! by Mkkby · · Score: 3

      Can't wait to see this in practice. Without manual controls, how do you adjust it's position in a parking space or garage? How would you go thru a typical drive up window? How would you maneuver around a barricade, accident or temporary police detour? How about going around and around a parking lot or underground garage?

      None of these things will be possible from GPS maps, nor radar images. Not in 2019 or 2030.

    4. Re:Within 2 years?! by stevelinton · · Score: 2

      Can't wait to see this in practice. Without manual controls, how do you adjust it's position in a parking space or garage? How would you go thru a typical drive up window? How would you maneuver around a barricade, accident or temporary police detour? How about going around and around a parking lot or underground garage?

      At a guess, you select the appropriate view on the dasboard console and drag the rectangle that denotes the car to where you want it to go. A bit like the current systems that show you a rear view camera with the path of the car marked on it, but with the screen controlling the steering instead of vice versa. These cars will have radar or lidar and lots of cameras, as well as GPS.

  5. Talk about a captive audience by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 2

    And if anything goes wrong with the guidance system, don't worry -- it will simply slow down, pull over, and stop.

    And then...

    1. Re:Talk about a captive audience by npslider · · Score: 2

      ... Sit in big city rush hour traffic for hours?

    2. Re:Talk about a captive audience by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

      And if anything goes wrong with the guidance system, don't worry -- it will simply slow down, pull over, and stop.

      And then...

      Call AAA?

    3. Re:Talk about a captive audience by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As opposed to now, where if something in the guidance system fails the car generally goes out of control and there are multiple injuries. See "I want to die like my grandfather, peacefully in my sleep while everyone else is screaming."

      Or just like any of a number of other major non-guidance systems failures on a current car, e.g. catastrophic radiator failure.

    4. Re:Talk about a captive audience by Kjella · · Score: 2

      ... Sit in big city rush hour traffic for hours?

      So what do you do today if your car has some sort of mechanical failure? Sensors and processing is for the most part passive units, they'll probably have quite high durability and uptime. With some redundancy and error correction they'll probably not be significantly worse off than human-driven cars. A bigger concern is that the sensors are fine, but the AI doesn't understand where to go. But I imagine there'll be some form of remote driving capability built in to resolve that, assuming you're in good range of a cell network.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  6. Yeah, right by Shogun37 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What happens if the guidance system goes out? If the map the computer's using isn't fully up to date? If I need to move the car only a short distance, or park in a place without parking spaces? This is the same kind of thinking that removed guns from fighter aircraft because "dog fighting is obsolete." I haven't seen any self guiding car system that I would trust to act, with no ability to override. Build one that can handle New York or LA rush hour and I may change my mind.

    1. Re:Yeah, right by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Informative

      Answers:

      GPS doesn't go out.
      If any critical sensor fails, it's slow down and move to the side of the road.
      The launch will be in a limited geographical area, so they'll have ensured the map is completely up to date and keep it that way.
      It's a ride-hailing service (taxi) so micromanaging where it moves or parks is none of your business.

    2. Re:Yeah, right by Known+Nutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What happens if I'm going someplace without mapped roads? Like my cabin.

      I'd like to take a Boeing 737 to my cabin. Guess what? That mode of transportation isn't available to my cabin. Maybe I'd like to go off-roading in a Corvette. There are probably better options.

      It seems that every time autonomous vehicles come up for discussion, every single possible use-case must be addressed. And when one oddly-specific use-case cannot be filled, the entire idea is garbage and without merit.

      It's pretty simple. You don't get to take your autonomous vehicle to your cabin in the woods. Not yet.

      --
      Beware of the Leopard.
    3. Re:Yeah, right by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 2

      I'm willing to bet that if the entire GPS system (US GPS, EU Galileo, Russian GLONASS, and what ever the Chinese and Indian systems are) all go out we have bigger problems than just missing GPS. The systems all operate at similar frequencies, because they wanted to ensure that if someone tried to jam theirs it would also jam the attackers. So I would say if they all went down we either just experienced a massive CME and soon will have melted power lines and transformers, someone nuked them and the whole planet is going to have a really fucking bad few hundred years shortly, or we are going to be enslaved by aliens who just took them out. Much like the people who horde gold and say what if the US dollar collapses not realizing that the lack of regular currency will be among the least of their problems if things get that bad.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    4. Re:Yeah, right by lgw · · Score: 2

      Many families have 2 cars. Perhaps the self-driving car will also be the electric car? You know, cheap and easy for the 95% use case.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    5. Re:Yeah, right by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real game changer here is convenient car rentals. As in: book a car when you need it, have it pull up by itself 30 minutes later, use it, and send it on its way when you are done with it (instead of having to go to the depot for pickup and dropoff, and navigate 5 billion insurance options with the guy at the desk). So when you buy your next car, maybe you will select that smaller electric (self driving or otherwise) that covers 95% of your driving needs, and rent a truck, van, 4x4 or large sedan for the other 5%. Access to convenient rental cars could mean a lot of families owning fewer cars, or selecting more economical ones.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  7. Re:This might be the push... by DogDude · · Score: 2

    The trade-off is that cars kill a lot of people every year. Riding a motorcycle around a 3rd would country indicates that you apparently have little concern about dying in a traffic accident. I, on the other hand, am afraid of my family getting killed or injured on the road every day. I'm looking forward to having to worry less about my family getting killed or injured.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  8. Re:Why bother? by plague911 · · Score: 2

    Steering wheels are dangerous, costly, add weight and I am sure someone else can find a few more negatives. In short, there are a boat load of reasons to get rid of them and there was only 1 to keep it "need" and that is now gone.

  9. Re:This might be the push... by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2

    I don't think "coward" is the right word for not wanting to ride a motorcycle in a Latin American city. I know, I did it for nearly 10 years. But you're in your early 30's. You still think "it won't happen to me!"

  10. Re:What a joke by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

    No, you simply get out, remove the garbage can... at which point the car takes off without you.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  11. Re:This might be the push... by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2

    Better it happen to me on a motorbike than pissing and shitting myself in a nursing home.

    If you're lucky. Death is not the only outcome of a bad accident. You're just playing rhetoric games, convincing yourself that's it's a reasonable thing to do. I know, I did it too.