Moreover the General Motors vehicle will not be a prototype; the vehicle manufacturer aims to mass-produce these new types of self-driving cars and make them widely available to the public, especially in emerging smart cities with location software in place.
The news also signals a further step change in the direction being charted by the major U.S. car manufacturers. The move is a bold one, however, since all self-driving cars to date have had the safety features that enable the driver to take back control should an incident arise. The planned General Motors vehicles will lack the conventional controls in the form of steering wheels and pedals.
Autonomous cars are being backed by many investors, car manufacturers and technology firms as the next big innovation for business and consumers. For example, with car manufacturers such as Volvo, Tesla and BMW, driverless cars are seen as the future of driving and have altered the future manufacturing strategy of these firms. These developments are not without their technological challenges, such as the competitive race to develop the optimal vehicle sensor technology for self-driving vehicles.
The new General Motors vehicle is the fourth generation of its driverless, all-electric Chevy Bolts, according to The Verge. The current model is undergoing testing on public roads in cities like San Francisco. The current generation will be deployed, as soon as tests are complete, as ride-hailing vehicles to challenge traditional taxi firms.
The design concept for the fourth generation vehicle is shown in the following video:
The Cruise AV is designed to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or other manual controls when it goes on the road in 2019. According Engadget the car is described as “the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls.”
General Motors aims to present the concept for its new vehicle at the January 2018 Detroit Auto Show, which is a major event for the auto and transportation industry to showcase new products and ventures. In recent years more and more of the automotive innovations presented have been technology driven.
In further autonomous car news, recent research reveals new depth sensors could make self-driving cars practical. A computational method has improved resolution of time-of-flight depth sensors 1,000-fold (see Digital Journal’s article “New depth sensors improve self-driving cars“).
