GM stakes claim in race to build autonomous cars
DETROIT — General Motors announced this week it has finished making 130 autonomous Chevrolet Bolt test vehicles at its plant in Lake Orion, Michigan, an achievement the automaker says will help put it at the forefront of the race to develop and deploy self-driving cars.
CEO and chairman Mary Barra, speaking to several hundred employees gathered at the plant, said GM is the only automaker capable of building a high volume of autonomous vehicles.
“The autonomous vehicles you see here today are purpose-built, self-driving test vehicles,” Barra said. “The level of integration in these vehicles is on par with any of our production vehicles, and that is a great advantage. In fact, no other company today has the unique and necessary combination of technology, engineering and manufacturing ability to build autonomous vehicles at scale.”
The version of the Chevrolet Bolt autonomous vehicles unveiled Tuesday are equipped with the latest array of equipment, including LIDAR, cameras, radar, sensors and other hardware designed and built by GM and its suppliers. The cars must be driven with a person behind the wheel who is alert and ready to take control if necessary.
The white Bolt displayed by GM Tuesday features a roof rack with silver and black LIDAR modules and cameras, sidemounted articulating white radar units that are used to monitor cross traffic, and extra cameras mounted on the front.
“There are even a couple of cameras that are dedicated just to seeing traffic lights to make sure you don’t run red lights,” said Kyle Vogt, CEO of Cruise Automation, a self-driving software development firm GM acquired last year.
The automaker had already built about 50 autonomous Chevrolet Bolts retrofitted with the specialized sensors needed to drive themselves, meaning the automaker now has 180 such vehicles it can test and refine.
GM began testing the first generation of its self-driving Chevrolet Bolts last June in Detroit, Scottsdale, Arizona, and San Francisco. Barra said testing of the new version of the selfdriving Bolts will begin soon.
GM began making the secondgeneration autonomous Bolts in January and now has a sufficient number of the vehicles to conduct the type of testing it wants to do, said Andrew Farah, the chief technical officer for the self-driving Bolt. Farah said GM wants to learn from this version of the vehicle before it begins making more of them.
GM has been aggressively working to positions itself as a driverless vehicle leader.
In addition to making its $581-million US acquisition of Cruise Automation, it invested $500 million in ride-hailing company Lyft.
GM is in the process of hiring 1,163 additional engineers and other employees for Cruise Automation and is moving the company to a new headquarters in San Francisco.
And earlier this year, GM’s chief financial officer vowed that the automaker would run its autonomous vehicle development like a Silicon Valley startup, sinking $600 million US annually, or $150 million per quarter, into the effort.
Barra also said in December 2016 the automaker would be the first company to build autonomous test vehicles in a mass-production assembly plant, revealing Orion Assembly, where it builds the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle, as the location.
The Chevrolet Bolt EV is a front-engine, five-door all-electric subcompact hatchback with an all-electric range of 383 kilometres. It has been highly acclaimed, earning the award as the North American Car of the Year, Motor Trend Car of the Year, Detroit Free Press Car of the Year and other awards.