GM hints at autonomous Bolt EV coming to Lyft

General Motors is confident it will have an autonomous, all electric car on the road sooner than most expect, available on Lyft’s ride-sharing app.

Speaking to Tech Insider, Pam Fletcher, the chief engineer of autonomous tech at GM, hinted that the tech is progressing faster than most expected and a consumer model could be coming soon.

“We have not made that announcement yet, but what I would say is this is all coming much faster than people anticipate, so I’ll say that much,” said Fletcher. “We are working on an on-demand ride-sharing network with Lyft, it’s not something we are thinking about, it’s something we are very much readying for consumer use.”

GM has already tested ridesharing apps for autonomous cars at its test facilities, but bringing that to public roads would require quite a hefty change in the legislation regarding autonomous cars.

Transport Secretary Anthony Foxx has hinted at federal regulations for autonomous cars in the near future, but we suspect driverless vehicles will remain off limits, at least in urban areas, after the Tesla Model S fatality has changed a lot of people’s opinions on self-driving.

Is GM self-driving’s dark horse?

It does show that GM could be the dark horse in the autonomous race, surpassing early favorites Google, Tesla, and Uber. In the past year, GM has invested $500 million in Lyft and$1 billion to purchase Cruise Automation, bulking up its autonomous prowess.

The automaker started testing its autonomous tech on public roads as well, bringing two customized Chevrolet Bolt EV cars to California earlier this year for testing.

Instead of selling the car, GM appears to be looking into a new driverless fleet that works inside the Lyft app. Uber, Lyft’s main rival in the U.S., is reportedly planning similar functionality for its self-driving fleet.

Google and Tesla may also be planning ridesharing or car-loaning services, instead of customers purchasing a car outright. That might not excite customers wanting to own their own autonomous car, but may provide means for millions to get around the city in a car for the first time, boosting mobility and productivity for all.

GM to spend $1 billion on self-driving tech center in Detroit

It’s not all happening in Silicon Valley.

General Motors has created a new team dedicated to autonomous cars at its Warren Tech Center, based in Detroit. There are already several hundred employees working on the development of its self-driving system, alongside test drivers already active in San Francisco.

“We’ve got several hundred people in this space right now … expanding to several hundred people more (by end of this year into next year),” said Ken Kelzer, vice president of global vehicle components to Detroit News.

Inside the tech center, General Motors has developed an indoor track for car testing. Employees are also able to hail the autonomous Chevrolet Volt cars from outside of the building, using an app, which lets them test the self-driving system on public roads with traffic.

Adding another billion to GM’s autonomous spending

The tech center redevelopment is said to cost GM $1 billion—the same price it paid for self-driving startup Cruise Automation.

“The nice thing about the Tech Center is there are a lot of different traffic maneuvers,” said chief technology officer, Jon Lauckner. “For example, we have roundabouts where you have to merge on and merge off. It turns out to be a fairly complicated situation. There are definitely medians, left turns across traffic, you know the kinds of things you’re going to find definitely in an urban environment. And the kinds of things that are going to allow us to basically refine and further develop the sensing and processing that we’re going to need to have a fully autonomous vehicle in the future.”

GM expects the combination of in-house and real-life testing to propel them ahead of other automakers currently working on self-driving systems, though it is behind Tesla, Google, and Daimler, who have made large investments or managed millions of miles already.

The hailing services inside the building are expected, considering GM spent $500 million to own a part of ridesharing app Lyft earlier this year. GM wants its Chevrolet Volt to be a large part of Lyft’s driverless fleet, and in the meantime plans to sell a lot of the cars to drivers through prefered financing options.

Self-driving car market worth trillions by 2030?

As the world’s biggest players in IT and the car makers dive frantically into self-driving cars, a new report estimates this market will grow to an astonishing $2.6 trillion annually within 15 years.

The site Gas2.org reports the startling growth prospects for self-driving cars revealed in a new Mogran Stanley report led by Katy Huberty.

Her research team estimates that the global shared mobility market will reach $$2.6 trillion annually by 2030.

Much of what’s superficially driving this market is disruptive technology and business models of companies like Uber and Lyft. These companies have muscled into the traditional taxi market in big cities worldwide and shown a thriving willingness for tech savvy citizens to pay for new types of services.

More importantly, Uber’s disruptive approach has broken open the car-buying paradigm in big cities, and exposed an increasing desire by urban dwellers to reduce vehicle ownership or skip it all together. And as individual car ownership is expected to wane, this will be countered by a corresponding rise in vehicles sold to shared mobility networks.

Demand seems strong – but trillions?

Earlier this spring, Uber’s CEO boldly pronounced that if Tesla developed an autonomous car by 2020 Uber would by the entire manufacturing run. Following this Tesla guru Elon Musk coyly hinted that electric car company may be poised to enter into the race to develop self-driving cars.

Another new contender in the car market is Apple, which invested $1 billion in Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride hailing service. Not only will that deal allow Apple to integrate its existing technology in a new market, but it will provide vital data on consumer behavior in China, a market that analysts predict will be one of the most open to switching to autonomous vehicles.

This seismic market shift has traditional automakers scrambling to catch up to the drastically changing technology and consumer landscape.

Volkswagen recently announced that it would focus more of its resources on self-driving and electric cars, while pumping $300 million into Israeli firm Gett.

Not to be outdone, General Motors recently acquired Cruise Automation for $1 billion and invested an additional $500 million into Lyft.

Add to this Chrysler teaming up with Google self-driving minivans and BMW’s refocusing its “i” division toward developing autonomous car technology.

And with such huge players from both the IT world and the automaking universe gambling big, it’s clear there will be massive winners and losers as the technology shakes out. So strap in, it’s going to be one wild ride.

General Motors flags down Lyft to start taxi trial

General Motors and Lyft want prototype autonomous taxis on the road by the end of the year, a preliminary step for the ride-sharing company in swapping human drivers with a machine.

GM has spent $1.5 billion on the program so far – $500 million as the lead investor in Lyft’s funding round and $1 billion to acquire San Francisco-based Cruise Automation, which provides the self-driving system that will be installed inside prototype cars.

Lyft will trial the program in an unknown city and use GM cars to test the autonomous features, according to WSJ. Customers will be able to opt-in or out of the program from the mobile app.

It will be the first autonomous test that uses the public as testers, which may alarm regulators that don’t currently condone public use of driverless vehicles. Google, Uber, and Tesla have all run trials in California, Pittsburgh and Michigan, but always in a controlled environment with members of the press and the public.

Lyft playing catch-up?

Uber has already poached key executives from Ford and Google’s self-driving team, showing it places a big emphasis on autonomous cars for the future of its service. Lyft came a little late to the party, but the deal with GM makes it a key player in the rise of automotive automation, and makes the rivalry between Uber even more tenacious.

GM isn’t just looking at the self-driving side of the deal, it wants Lyft drivers to lease or purchase cars through a program set up in Chicago, which will expand to more cities later this year. The Chevrolet Equinox is the car currently available for drivers, though GM is expected to add the Bolt to the list of choices to get more electric cars on the road.

A few traditional carmakers are starting to partner with a tech company, almost as a security for the automotive future. Fiat Chrysler recently announced a partnership to provide Google more autonomous cars.

Tesla and Uber are still lone warriors in the battle, though the latter is a partner of Baidu, who has its own self-driving car. Tesla has shown no signs of wanting to enter the taxi market, so it might become a partner for a new ride hailing app in the future.

Google not embarrassed to self-drive Fiat Chrysler minivan

Google has announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler, which will double the size of the company’s autonomous fleet to 200 cars.

Fiat will provide 100 Chrysler Pacifica vans to Google. The vans will be fitted with all of Google’s autonomous technology and will join the other 100 cars in California for road testing.

The two companies claim this is the “most advanced” partnership between Silicon Valley and a traditional automotive company.

“The opportunity to work closely with Fiat engineers will accelerate our efforts to develop a fully self-driving car that will make our roads safer,” said John Krafcik, Google’s head of self-driving cars.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne has been a bit of a pessimist towards Silicon Valley in the past, calling them “disruptive interlopers” and questioning the capability of a company like Google to make a good car.

Google unlikely to get into car-making

We doubt Google will build its own vehicles when driverless cars are permitted on the roads, instead working with a small selection of automotive companies. Fiat is in a powerful position to be the primary manufacturer of autonomous cars that use Google’s technology.

“FCA will design the minivans so it’s easy for us to install our self-driving systems, including the computers that hold our self-driving software and the sensors that enable our software to see what’s on the road around the vehicle,” said Google’s self-driving team.

Toyota was the first automotive company to partner with Google, providing 70 Lexus cars in 2014, but this sounds like a much closer partnership between the two companies.

We’re bound to see more partnerships like this in the next few years, as automotive manufacturers choose between Google’s established self-driving platform and their own in-house system. Ford, General Motors, and Toyota have all been linked in the past to Google, but all three have yet to make any official collaboration announcements.

GM's car sharing brand Maven expands to Boston, Chicago, D.C.

Having driven over a million miles in fewer than four months, General Motors' car sharing brandMaven is expanding to Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

SEE ALSO: Uber teases a first look at its self-driving car

GM announced Thursday morning that it will be expanding Maven into three major U.S. cities, having already driven a million miles in its two test markets New York City and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Maven is more than car sharing, starting at $8 per hour — including insurance and fuel. In Chicago, for example, Maven includes $99/week Chevy Equinox rentals, which allows Chicagoans who don't own a car to drive for GM partner Lyft.

IMAGE: BRIAN KERSEY FOR MAVEN

Specifically at the Aqua luxury high-rise in the city’s Lakeshore East neighborhood, residents can also utilize Maven for on-demand car sharing from their building.

While it's currently very limited, even with the newly added cities, over the coming years, Maven has the potential to wholly alter — if not end — car ownership as we know it. I mean, why own a car in one of these cities if you can car share or Lyft so inexpensively?

General Motors flags down Lyft to start taxi trial

General Motors and Lyft want prototype autonomous taxis on the road by the end of the year, a preliminary step for the ride-sharing company in swapping human drivers with a machine.

GM has spent $1.5 billion on the program so far – $500 million as the lead investor in Lyft’s funding round and $1 billion to acquire San Francisco-based Cruise Automation, which provides the self-driving system that will be installed inside prototype cars.

Lyft will trial the program in an unknown city and use GM cars to test the autonomous features, according to WSJ. Customers will be able to opt-in or out of the program from the mobile app.

It will be the first autonomous test that uses the public as tester1s, which may alarm regulators that don’t currently condone public use of driverless vehicles. Google, Uber, and Tesla have all run trials in California, Pittsburgh and Michigan, but always in a controlled environment with members of the press and the public.

Lyft playing catch-up?

Uber has already poached key executives from Ford and Google’s self-driving team, showing it places a big emphasis on autonomous cars for the future of its service. Lyft came a little late to the party, but the deal with GM makes it a key player in the rise of automotive automation, and makes the rivalry between Uber even more tenacious.

GM isn’t just looking at the self-driving side of the deal, it wants Lyft drivers to lease or purchase cars through a program set up in Chicago, which will expand to more cities later this year. The Chevrolet Equinox is the car currently available for drivers, though GM is expected to add the Bolt to the list of choices to get more electric cars on the road.

A few traditional carmakers are starting to partner with a tech company, almost as a security for the automotive future. Fiat Chrysler recently announced a partnership to provide Google more autonomous cars.

Tesla and Uber are still lone warriors in the battle, though the latter is a partner of Baidu, who has its own self-driving car. Tesla has shown no signs of wanting to enter the taxi market, so it might become a partner for a new ride hailing app in the future.

Detroit Auto Show to launch an all-autonomous spin-off in 2017

After swamping the Detroit Auto Show for the past two years, event directors have decided to debut an autonomous spin-off show in 2017, called AutoMobili-D.

The event will be held in Cobo Center Atrium in Detroit, Michigan on Jan 8, according toBoston Free Press. The atrium offers a 120,000 square-foot space and indoor test track for manufacturers to preview self-driving capabilities to industry experts and fans of the motor companies in a controlled environment.

See Also: Volvo tests self-driving cars in China and Sweden

“AutoMobili-D will provide an international look at the ever-changing world of consumer mobility and the ecosystem of companies and innovations that are driving this exciting transformation,” said Sam Slaughter, 2017 NAIAS chairman. “AutoMobili-D will provide the ideal platform for B2B networking and thought-provoking demonstrations.”

The spin-off event comes at a time where auto shows are struggling to maintain a powerful spot in the industry. Regular manufacturers are starting to prefer livestreaming or virtual reality announcements to spending loads on a spot at an auto show. Autonomous cars are in a different zone however, as manufacturers preview one or two features instead of an entire car at auto events. Previews require test drivers and a lot of space, two things auto shows have in spades.

Detroit has always been the go-to auto show

“Just as NAIAS has served as the leading global venue for automakers to debut brand-defining vehicles, AutoMobili-D will be the go-to setting for automakers, suppliers and startups alike to unveil advanced technologies and initiatives that will move the transportation industry into the next century,” said Slaughter.

Next year, we might see the first iterations of “mind-off” autonomous cars, which require minimal human interaction to drive. We are already seeing NuTonomy potentially launch a taxi service in Singapore, Baidu preparing to launch a similar service in China, and Google setting their sights on driverless software on the roads by 2018.

Add to that General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and Citroën all working on autonomous vehicles, and the Detroit autonomous show looks to be a packed event full of startups and big name brands.