Three years ago, General Motors Co. wouldn’t even let its self-driving cars out of the parking lot. Its custom Chevrolet Volt hybrids, meant to autonomously ferry employees around GM’s 700-acre research and development campus in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Mich., could only handle basic driving and topped out at about 25 miles per hour.
On Nov. 29, GM unveiled the latest version of its electric Chevy Bolt, a close second to Waymo’s self-driving minivans as the most advanced autonomous car the world has seen. GM intends the Bolts to form the backbone of a robo-taxi business it plans to start in 2019.
In order to meet that plan, GM acquired Cruise Automation for $581 million last year. If Cruise meets deadlines that trigger incentive payments, it’ll clear almost $1 billion.
“Autonomous driving is one of the most difficult software challenges of the decade, if not the century,” says Kyle Vogt, the face of GM’s automation efforts.
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