General Motors recently posted its Q1 2020 financial results, surprising analysts and Wall Street with $300 million in income on $32.7 billion in revenue. GM was the only one of the big three U.S. automakers to post a profit. During the recent first-quarter 2020 earnings call, GM CEO Mary Barra addressed a number of crucial topics, including an indication that the automaker’s highly profitable full-size SUVs were on-track for shipping in June, and that the company’s future EVs were on track despite disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s more Barra said she was “very pleased” with the progress made by the GM Cruise autonomous vehicle division.
During a Q&A session, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy asked Barra if she was rethinking the dollar commitment required to develop the GM Cruise autonomous vehicle technology, citing a $1 billion annual investment without any associated revenue.
Barra backed the company’s commitment to AVs, saying: “Well, first, I’m very pleased with the progress that we’re making from a technology perspective at Cruise. Just reviewed that earlier this week. So I think that we are continuing to hit milestone after milestone there.”
Barra did not elaborate on exactly what those milestones were. However, in response to a question proposed by Murphy with regard to integrating GM Cruise technology into the existing GM product portfolio, Barra talked about the GM Super Cruise semi-autonomous driver assist feature, saying:
“As it relates to bringing the technology into our fleet of vehicles on the road today, that’s really occurring through Super Cruise and we continue to add miles, add roads, add features, and you’ll see us as we spread it across the portfolio, starting with Cadillac and then moving to others.”
As was announced last June, the Super Cruise semi-autonomous driver system gained an additional 70,000 miles of usable highway driving last year, bringing the grand total to 200,000 miles of divided highway driving throughout the U.S. and Canada for customers. The GM Cruise-derived technology will see widespread implementation throughout the Cadillac lineup, including with the all-new 2021 Cadillac Escalade, while availability is expected to expand to 22 vehicles total by 2023, and will include non-Cadillac vehicles as well.
Meanwhile, the Cruise Origin driverless taxi was unveiled back in January.
Check out a full transcript of the earnings call below, and subscribe to GM Authority for ongoing GM news coverage.
John Murphy – Bank of America-Merrill Lynch – Analyst
“Okay. And then just a second question, I mean the commitment to Cruise, seems like it’s unwavering. But there is about $1 billion a year going out the door without any revenue. I’m just curious if you’re rethinking that dollar commitment on an annual basis, the potential business and monetization of it. And one phrase that I think you mentioned superhuman driving experience sounds really appealing to me. Is there the potential that you could lead some of this technology into your existing product portfolio over the next few years if you don’t see the monetization of an AMoD fleet anytime in the near future?”
Mary T. Barra – GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
“Well, first, I’m very pleased with the progress that they’re making from a technology perspective at Cruise. Just reviewed that earlier this week. So I think that we are continuing to hit milestone after milestone there. So I’m very positive about what’s happening at Cruise from that perspective. So I see huge opportunity. And so our commitment, as you said, is unwavering.
“As it relates to bringing the technology into the — our fleet of vehicles on the road today, that’s really occurring through Super Cruise and we continue to add miles, add roads, add features and you’ll see us as well as spread it across the portfolio, starting with Cadillac and then moving to others. So definitely have an aggressive plan to further roll out and improve the capability of Super Cruise.”
Comments
While I am hopeful that GM will win the Autonomous race I highly doubt anyone will Catch Tesla let alone GM with Cruise.
Tesla has already surpassed 3 Billion miles of Autonomous real world driven miles while the second place Waymo is not yet at 100 Million miles and that is in a Geo-fenced area not everywhere around the World like Teslas Data is from.
What I have always wondered in this new race is the following. Once someone tells the Governing body that they have successfully figured out Autonomous Driving and they need their Software to be approved by the Government, what will the rest of the Companies do afterwords? Will they continue to spend their own money to try and obtain their own Autonomous Software or will it just become so much cheaper at that point to just purchase the Software from the so called winner.
I am very intrigued to see how all this will unfold in the Future.
You must have missed the story a couple of days ago where a Tesla killed a pedestrian while on autopilot? 3 billions miles doesn’t matter if you miss the minor details. Driving as a function at a high level isn’t difficult to do – stay between the lines, don’t cross solid yellow lines, read and interpret signs, lights and avoid hitting what’s in front of you. It’s all the exception cases that make it near impossible.
Well just like everyone made fun of me here when I said Tesla won’t be able to make their Cybertrucks fast enough (as everyone now knows Tesla is going to build a new Gigafactory for it. Most likely in TX) upon seeing the release, we shall see if I am correct about this as well. Data is King. Good or bad Data. NASA couldn’t land men on the Moon if they didn’t make mistakes along the way. That is how progress is made. What everyone fails to realize here is that Waymo and cruise only get used in Geo-Fenced areas. And GM Super Cruise ONLY works on certain Highways. Autopilot is Worlds ahead in Real Life Driving and around the World not just in Geo-Fenced areas.
I’d rather something that works 100% of the time even if it has limits. Especially if I’m going to bet my life on it. I guess we’ll still see about the Cybertruck… Don’t really see what that has to do with autonomous driving, weird flex.
In the off road industry, autonomous has been around for some time. I don’t believe any of the equipment OEMs have sold their technology (Deere, Cat, etc). It’s a huge competitive advantage for the companies that have it, plus it would be a legal nightmare to license it to a competitor (ie liability in the case of a lawsuit). There are 3rd parties that have come in (like Trimble) that both partner with OEMs to develop their technology and also sell aftermarket kits direct to consumer. I haven’t seen anyone move into that space in the automotive industry though.
As far as Tesla being the leader, same as others have said. It’s not just the miles driven, but also what happened during them. Is any automaker going to have a perfect safety record? Doubtful. But that doesn’t mean some won’t be better than others. Tesla has continually showed quality is not a high priority, and that includes their software.
Lets not forget that over reliance on Tesla’s Autopilot system has also resulted in numerous deaths. One death is one death too many and I sincerely hope that GM rolls out a comprehensive Supercruise that does not result in unnecessary accidents. It worth noting that many third party testers prefer GM’s supercruise to Tesla’s Autopilot. There have been no user fatalities with Supercruise, while Autopilot has seen numerous fatal crashes.
@h4cksaw
I agree with you that nobody wants to see Death in any way shape or form but that is simply the inevitable. Do we not still to this day continue to launch Humans into Space? Nothing in Life will ever be Death Proof. Autonomous Vehicles will drastically bring down Deaths by Car Accidents but I am sure there will still be some every year just nowhere near the same amount as us Humans cause.
But that wasn’t my point. The point I was making is once someone gets approval first, what will the remaining parties do?
For all the Thumbs down, I only provided Data that anyone here can check for themselves. Do not shoot the messenger so to speak. Not my fault Tesla is in such a HUGE lead.
Autonomous is the future, semi autonomous is now. I am very curious as to when they integrate cruise software/hardware into their cars. Super cruise really isn’t that advanced of software/hardware. Volve put out something the other day detailing that 2022 they will offer fully autonomous cars with LIDAR that are geofenced to highway driving. Outside of highways you drive. That is a game changer, not the tease that is autopilot or supercruise.
Isn’t that what Supercruise has done for the past couple of years?
The Volvo will let you sleep according to them. No need to pay attention.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/06/volvo-to-use-luminars-lidar-in-production-vehicles-to-unlock-automated-driving-on-highways/
Autonomous will never be the future for all without Government inference aka banning normal cars.
So what do you do when you finally find the address of the place you where to go and there is NO PARKING available ? Or you decide you want to make a couple side stops on the way ? You now have to have the address of every place you want to stop ? YOU’RE KIDDING ?
Autonomous vehicles is the scam of the century.
So we can solve the autonomous challenge in your eyes just not the ‘hey car pull over here’ challenge. If you are not tech savvy, i can understand your trepidation, but those who understand tech/coding, understand that autonomous will be light years safer and convenient that an 80 year old driving a 2 ton vehicle with bifocals, or a 18 year old kid trying to impress his gf, or the 40 year old guy who had 3 drinks at the bar and drives while texting, etc etc.
We will never know if Avs are safer than traditional cars unless there is a 50-50 mix of AVs and regular cars. It is premature to deem any technology safer until it has been time tested. A good hack job could create thousands of deaths within seconds.
If people love being cooped up in the house due to covid 18, they will love AVs. Big brother will be able to control all “non essential” trips. The only place you would be allowed to go to is the store and back.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra is out of sync with reality, given that General Motors owns Cruise which has a fleet of autonomous self driving cars which means that GM is years behind the competition as a car company could license Tesla’s auto-pilot system and be further ahead of General Motors despite the tens of millions it has invested in Cruise.
A billion dollars down the drain, while Mary just talks about milestones blah blah. Companies need to be fast on their feet, look at what Tesla has been doing, while GM continues to throw money at never ending research and constantly finding new reasons to delay actually doing anything
But, but, I LIKE driving my vehicle!!!!! Hopefully by the time I’m in my 80’s they will have perfected these cars…..Until then,I’M driving!