General Motors will immediately begin testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads and will produce the next generation of autonomous test vehicles at its Orion Township assembly plant early next year.
Earlier this year GM purchased Cruise Automation for $1 billion. San Francisco-based Cruise Automation is a developer of an ‘after-market’ kit that makes vehicles self-driving. Founded in 2013, Cruise had been testing its technology on the streets of San Francisco. Cruise operates as an independent unit within GM’s recently formed Autonomous Vehicles Development Team, led by Doug Parks, GM vice president of autonomous technology and vehicle execution, and will stay in San Francisco.
In March, GM invested $500 million in Lyft to develop an integrated network of on-demand autonomous vehicles in the U.S., and then in June, the company began testing its testing autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EVs (electric vehicles) on the public roads in San Francisco and Scottsdale. More than 40 autonomous vehicles are testing in the two cities. This announcement further exemplifies the company’s commitment to autofocus vehicle technology.
"Revolutionizing transportation for our customers while improving safety on roads is the goal of our autonomous vehicle technology, and today’s announcement gets us one step closer to making this vision a reality," said General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. "Our autonomous technology will be reliable and safe, as customers have come to expect from any of our vehicles."
Testing is underway on GM’s Technical Center campus in Warren, MI, USA, and with the SAVE Act legislation—which supports autonomous vehicle testing and deployment in Michigan—will expand to public roads outside of the facility. In the next few months, said GM, testing will expand into metro Detroit, which will become GM’s main location for development of autonomous technology in winter climates.
Workers at GM’s Orion Township plant will build test fleet Bolt EVs equipped with fully autonomous technology. Currently, the plant manufacturers the Bolt EV and Sonic. New equipment will include LIDAR, cameras, sensors, and additional hardware to support autonomous driving. Test fleet vehicles will be used by GM engineers for continued testing and validation of the technology.
View the GM press release.
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James Carroll
Former VSD Editor James Carroll joined the team 2013. Carroll covered machine vision and imaging from numerous angles, including application stories, industry news, market updates, and new products. In addition to writing and editing articles, Carroll managed the Innovators Awards program and webcasts.