GM Still Plans To Launch Robo-Taxi Service Without Safety Drivers
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General Motors may have delayed the launch of its robo-taxi service under its Cruise subsidiary, but the automaker remains confident that it will still be able to roll the service out sometime in the near future.
Additionally, GM still wants to launch the service without a safety driver behind the wheel and remains confident in the idea of AVs that lack a steering wheel and brake and accelerator pedals.
Speaking to reporters following its Q2 2019 earnings call, GM CEO Mary Barra said it won’t put prototypes on the street without safety drivers until they are ready. But unlike its competitor Waymo, which is currently running a beta robo-taxi program with safety drivers behind the wheel, GM wants Cruise robo-taxis to be driverless from the get-go.
“Our deployment will be when we can have the vehicle operating safely without a safety trainer,” Barra said.
GM recently pushed back the debut of the Cruise robo-taxi service in San Francisco indefinitely. It had previously said it would put a fleet of self-driving vehicles on the city’s streets for ride-sharing purposes before the end of 2019. Many already had their doubts the company would meet its lofty timeline for the service’s rollout, with a report emerging late last year that alleged Cruise was behind schedule.
If Cruise can launch without a safety driver as it plans, it sees no reason why its AVs should have traditional vehicle controls. For that reason, it remains confident that AVs should not have a steering wheel or pedals, despite rivals designing AVs with stowable controls that offer the best of both worlds. The automaker filed a safety waiver with NHTSA last year that would allow them to put the steering wheel and pedal-less vehicles on public roads and a decision on the petition is expected to be made soon.
“I wouldn’t say there are impediments there,” Barra said. “There is just still work to be done. I think NHTSA understands the importance of this technology from a safety perspective. I think there is a line of sight to get the regulatory approval.”
Barra also downplayed the fact that it missed the 2019 deadline, saying that “anytime you are working on something that never has been done before, brand-new technology, a timeline is likely to move around a little bit,” before adding that the company still has a “line of sight,” for its eventual launch.
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Source: Wards Auto
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Machete Mary is completely clueless. Did anyone tell her most people could care less about this technology? A vehicle without controls is an absolute disaster waiting to happen.
Do you really think Mary is the only person who thinks it’s a good idea to get into the AV space? Also, by saying “most people could care less”, you are unintentionally saying that most people do care about AV. The most accurate part of your comment was an accident.
I think most people do care about this. Autonomous driving will be a godsend for commuters and long distance travel and reduction in traffic as well as fatalities. I infer that you do not live in a city where driving is a chore and autonomous would lower the cost of travel and make it safer/quicker.
If Mary was the only CEO spearheading a major automaker into AV’s, you’d be right.
But I never hear you complaining about other automakers and tech companies pushing towards AV’s. For you, it’s only when GM does. It’s like you want GM to be left behind the rest of the industry.
Also, if you ‘could care less’, it means you still care about something.
The other automakers are not funding their ventures at the expense of current customers. GM has really cut corners in their interior quality and has cancelled/delayed product to fund this. Also the other automakers have more measured expectations of this technology and are not making promises that cannot be kept.
I just read an article about Tesla being sued over Tesla’s Autopilot allegedly causing a supposedly “drive under the Semi” death of a Florida driver that apparently believed in hands-off driving? He at least had a steering wheel and brake pedal that could have saved his life? AV technology is still a long way off.
GM still “PLANTS”(?) to launch……. Proof read?
I’m going to make a bet that this still won’t be available for even 2020. You heard it here first.
The ONLY good thing that could come from this is if it would get all the morons who pay more attention to their damned cell phones out of the way and confine them to slow lane.
“and confine them to slow lane.”
But that’s what’s not going to happen. Manually driven cars will have to keep right, whereas autonomous cars will coordinate their movements with each other and will be allowed to travel much faster in the left lane. When they want to exit the highway, they’ll change lanes and switch to manual mode, and then hit the off ramp.
They’ll still be on their phones, sadly, but if all their cars are working in tandem with each other, they’re no longer limited by the slower car ahead of them. People will pay for the luxury of traveling faster than others.
The take-away points from this article are that GM:-
• Remains confident that it will still be able to roll the robo taxi service out sometime in the near future,
• Wants to launch the service without a safety driver behind the wheel and
• Remains confident in the idea of AVs that lack a steering wheel and brake and accelerator pedals.
These points lead me to conclude that GM will achieve them during 2020 or soon after.
The AV revolution is about to begin.
This just leads me to believe that Barra and GM are blowing smoke up analysts backside to keep their stock prices up. I don’t believe anything that comes from Barra and her cronies. Heck they cannot even come up with decent interiors in their current cars and we are to believe they are going to leapfrog everyone with this?
Giant lawsuits to follow.
General Motors better have their insurance for MAX coverage because anyone who has seen their Cruise vehicles on the road will notice that they’re an accident waiting to happen as many of the vehicles look to be confused and it’s their human driver that is required to prod them along because their programming could not determine what to do; without a human pilot, these taxis will drive very slowly and cautiously.. often not at legal speeds and will often stall because they cannot decide what they’re supposed to do at a 4-way stop intersection.
Wait till the lawyers figure out that the inevitable product liability suits against GM and the other AV manufacturers are more lucrative than Roundup lawsuits. We will see anti GM commercials at every station break!