General Motors became the first automaker to build self-driving cars with conventional automotive manufacturing processes when it rolled out its first batch of autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EV’s earlier this month.
The automaker released a short promotional video showing the workforce at the Orion Township assembly plant building the self-driving Bolt EV piece by piece to show this is not science fiction—it’s a coming reality.
GM acquired Cruise Automation to help propel its self-driving car efforts and has been pretty hands off with the process. GM knows how to build a car, retains some seriously talented engineers and has Cruise Automation to bolster its efforts. In GM’s eyes, it’s sitting pretty.
The autonomous Bolt EVs sport next-generation autonomous vehicle technology. Lidar, cameras and sensors are all onboard from the production line—again, a first for any automaker.
“This production milestone brings us one step closer to making our vision of personal mobility a reality,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “Expansion of our real-world test fleet will help ensure that our self-driving vehicles meet the same strict standards for safety and quality that we build into all of our vehicles.”
Watch the assembly process unfold in the video above.
Comments
If these Chevy Bolt EVs are autonomous, why do they need a driver after assembly? Can they drive off by themselves?
Yawn…..