General Motors is racing to electrify its vast lineup of vehicles in a concerted bid to outpace Tesla as the No. 1 seller of EVs in the world. But it’s also competing with Tesla on a whole other front: autonomous vehicles.
On this front, GM feels like it has an edge. It’s hands-free advanced driver-assist system, Super Cruise, will double its coverage area to 400,000 miles of highways and routes later this year. Next year, the automaker will unveil the next iteration, Ultra Cruise, which GM has said will cover “95 percent” of driving tasks. And its robotaxi division, Cruise, is currently picking up and dropping off passengers in San Francisco as part of the city’s first real commercial autonomous ridehail service.
But at present, public perceptions around AVs and driver-assist technology are not great. People see the headlines about the latest Tesla crash, or they remember the woman who was killed by a self-driving Uber vehicle in 2017, and they conclude that autonomous vehicles are too dangerous for public use.
Recent Comments