INNOVATION AT THE HEART OF GM’S FUTURE
The automotive industry is changing rapidly and Canada has a role to play in that new future.
At GM, we see the future of the automobile as increasingly electric, connected, autonomous (or self-driving) and an integral part of the sharing economy.
A decade ago, the big advances in auto innovation and technology were found inside the car and under the hood. Now innovation extends well beyond the car through mobile connectivity and business model transformation.
At GM, we’re all about developing the best ways to get our customers from A to B safely, affordably, and in ways that are good for the planet.
I believe that four key areas of rapid innovation will ultimately converge into what we call “the future of mobility.” First, environmental technology and electric cars.
Our industry is spending billions of dollars on environmental technology to reduce emissions. But we think the most significant and lasting change will be the transition to electric vehicles and fuel cells. At GM, we’re proud to be the leading seller of electric vehicles in Canada for the past several years.
In early 2017, GM will launch the first affordable and long-range electric vehicle: the Chevrolet Bolt EV. With a U.S. EPA-estimated 383-kilometre range on a single charge, customers can expect the Bolt EV to take them beyond their average daily driving needs — with plenty of range to spare.
The second trend is the “connected car.”
What smartphones have done to connect us in the past decade, our cars will do in the future. For almost 20 years, GM’s customers have been wirelessly connected through GM’s OnStar system and now OnStar brings 4G LTE connectivity to all of our new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. Connectivity is a top priority for our customers. More than 70 per cent of the world’s population owns a mobile device, and 87 per cent of millennials say their smartphone never leaves their side. No other competitor has the ability to integrate mobile, projected and invehicle experiences like we can, through OnStar and our integration of smartphone technology like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The third trend involves cars that drive themselves, which we refer to as “autonomous driving.”
GM technologies like lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, and active braking are all on the road today. The next step is the launch of Cadillac’s Super Cruise technology, which features adaptive cruise control at any speed and uses cameras and sensors to automatically steer and brake in controlled access roadway situations. And as part of our recently announced autonomous software mandate, we’ll be working on the development of these technologies right here in Canada.
The fourth trend is “urban mobility.”
To tackle the challenges of urban traffic, we see our cities moving toward an integrated, multimodal mobility system. As part of that, our customers will increasingly share the use of vehicles instead of owning them. The city is where these key trends will come together — with more electric, shared and autonomous vehicles. The auto industry of tomorrow won’t only focus on selling vehicles, but on selling kilometres and gigabytes, too. At GM, we’re striving for a sharing system that feels like ownership. If you can make it seamless, convenient and reliable, it will make sharing feel personal.
GM has been moving fast in the sharing economy. First we launched Maven, a new GM brand that’s dedicated to vehicle-sharing and ride-hailing. We’re also investing in strategic partnerships with companies such as Lyft and Cruise automation to advance our development in software and autonomous vehicle technologies.
What does all this mean for Canada? The answer is opportunity. Last year, GM Canada took on a forward-looking innovation mandate for work on the connected car at our Canadian Technical Centre in Oshawa, Ont., and we opened our innovation lab — 2908 @ Communitech — in Waterloo, Ont.
In June, I was joined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to announce a major expansion of our engineering and software work in Canada to support the development of innovative new automotive systems and technologies for the future. We’ll also open a new Software Development Centre in Markham, Ont. We’re investing $10 million in our Kapuskasing Cold Weather testing facility, and we plan to develop a new Urban Mobility Hub on Eastern Avenue in downtown Toronto. Our goal is to actively promote better, safer and more environmentally beneficial approaches to urban mobility.
We’re hiring now to reach approximately 1,000 positions over the next few years in the areas of vehicle software and controls, infotainment and connected vehicle technology. These new GM Canada jobs will be at the heart of a strong Canadian automotive innovation ecosystem. We believe Canada has the talent and the university-based R&D to help play a significant role in defining the future of automotive technology in this period of profound and important change in our sector.
GM Canada is looking to the future — and doing that right here in Canada.