GM to Test fleet of Electric Cars In New York
October 17 2017 - 12:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias and Tim Higgins
General Motors Co. plans to become the first company to test
self-driving cars in New York City, a move aimed at asserting
leadership in the race to develop autonomous cars and a potentially
important step toward commercializing the technology.
GM will deploy a fleet of self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric
cars early next year in a 5-square-mile section of lower Manhattan
that engineers are mapping, said Kyle Vogt, chief executive of
Cruise Automation, the driverless-car developer GM acquired last
year. The move could be seen as a threat to the thousands of taxi
drivers piloting yellow cabs around New York, as autonomous
robot-taxis operated by GM and its rivals are seen eventually
displacing human drivers.
GM said a safety operator will be at the wheel of each car to
gather data and take over if something goes wrong.
GM's Cruise operation has been testing more than 100
self-driving Bolts in various markets, but its work in San
Francisco is seen as particularly valuable because it offers a
congested environment with a high concentration of hairy situations
that fully automated cars must learn to navigate. New York will
present similar challenges and offer new hurdles, including bad
weather and more-aggressive drivers, which will "improve our
software at a much faster rate," Mr. Vogt said.
"Anyone else who's driven in New York City knows that it's going
to present some unique challenges," he said in an interview. Cruise
will open a research facility in the city but declined to discuss
details.
GM is racing to develop vehicles that drive themselves as tech
companies try to perfect technology that could shuffle the power
players in the auto industry. One-quarter of miles driven in the
U.S. by 2030 could be through shared, self-driving vehicles,
according to an estimate from the Boston Consulting Group.
Most companies have focused testing in Silicon Valley -- 42
companies hold permits to test autonomous vehicles on California's
public roads. That includes Google parent Alphabet Inc. through its
Waymo unit, which is testing around its corporate campus in
suburban Mountain View. It is also scaling up operations in the
Phoenix area, where it offers rides to nonemployees in 500 Chrysler
minivans, with a safety operator at the wheel.
Cruise and other new competitors are making up for lost time
against Waymo, which is considered the leader after spending eight
years collecting more than 3.5 million autonomous miles in more
than 20 cities.
GM executives argue that hard-earned city driving is more useful
for the car to learn how to handle unusual situations that human
drivers take for granted, such as how to handle broken traffic
lights at an intersection. For example, Cruise's autonomous Bolts
encountered a lane blocked by construction at a rate of 19 times
more often in San Francisco than in the Phoenix area, where it is
also testing.
Executives haven't given a specific time frame, but said they
envision an on-demand ride-sharing network in a densely populated
area, and that deployment will happen "sooner than people
think."
In a research note this month, Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache
said he believes GM could launch a commercial autonomous-ride
service -- without anyone at the wheel -- "within the next few
quarters, well ahead of competitors." Citing recent briefings with
company officials, he thinks GM will offer its own service that
could be "highly disruptive" to ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft
Inc.
Mr. Vogt wouldn't say whether Cruise's New York testing signals
plans to eventually offer an autonomous-car service there. Testing
in Manhattan "will be critical to the ultimate success of
autonomous vehicles and the compression of the timeline for
deployment at scale," he said.
GM shares have surged more than 25% in the last two months amid
growing buzz around its driverless technology.
Several states have passed laws to give autonomous-car
developers broad latitude to test their systems on public roads,
including California, Michigan and Arizona, betting the technology
will someday spawn bigger investments and jobs. New York Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo is pushing for autonomous testing as part of an
effort to fashion New York as a technology hub, which has included
significant investment in the drone industry.
"We're proud to be on the forefront of this emerging industry
that has the potential to be the next great technological advance
that moves our economy," Gov. Cuomo said in a statement.
The state passed a law last spring that grants autonomous
testing on state roads. Cruise's experience should generate data
for future industry-friendly regulation, an office spokeswoman
said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 17, 2017 00:14 ET (04:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
General Motors (NYSE:GM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
General Motors (NYSE:GM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024