Autonomous cars and personal mobility services be damned, right? Right. Grab the pitchforks, readers, because you’ll have to pry our hands off of the steering wheel. Thankfully, General Motors seems to understand there will be a target market that wants to drive a car, rather than be chauffeured around.
Wards Auto reported General Motors Vice President, Dan Nicholson, ensures powertrains won’t take a backseat as new services and technology grows.
“We still have a value proposition in selling driving character,” Nicholson, the automaker’s global powertrain chief, said.
The comments follow the announcements of Maven, GM’s personal mobility brand ready to take car-sharing services to a whole new level, and GM’s investment into Lyft for future fleets of autonomous vehicles nationwide.
But, the rise of personal mobility and car-sharing could naturally dilute long-desired features associated with an automobile; whether it be unique styling, an incredible chassis or an outstanding powertrain. Will it matter as much once consumers stop making the investment personally?
“I get that, however, the propulsion systems in these vehicles still have to comply with (regulations), and whoever does own those cars will have to care about (tailpipe emissions), fuel economy, electric charging power, or let’s call it refueling time, because they want to keep those cars out on the road.”
“Somebody has to own the vehicle, somebody has to care,” he added.
As for the driving experience itself, Nicholson doesn’t see it going away any time soon, and notes it could be especially different in the United States thanks to wide-open spaces and lack of overall congestion nationwide.
So, let’s not worry too much, but do let us sit back and watch the future unfold.
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