In autonomy, you have developed Super Cruise, the driver-assistance platform in some GM cars, which allows hands-free driving on certain highways. There is also Cruise, your robotaxi arm. More to come here, as well?
We launched Super Cruise in 2017. If I had a do-over, I would have rolled it out more quickly. But it was new technology, and we held it up to make sure it was right. We just doubled the number of miles covered by hands-free driving to 750,000. I use it. I love it.
What slowed us down was the chip shortage. If we waited to equip vehicles with Super Cruise, we weren’t going to be able to ship them. So, we’re not as far along as we wanted. But we still have a robust plan to put it in many models. We’ve taken tremendous costs out of Super Cruise while making it better, adding automatic lane changes, adjustments for towing, and more miles.
Super Cruise is targeted at Level 2 and Level 3 driver assistance, which allows hands-free driving, but it still requires drivers to pay attention. The big leap is to Level 4, where the car takes over. Do you expect GM to sell Level 4 cars to consumers anytime soon?
It depends how you define “soon,” but I believe we will have personal autonomous vehicles. The technology has taken longer than expected, but we have already validated that our Cruise robotaxi vehicle is safer than a human driver. I believe we’ll have personal AVs by the latter part of this decade.
Will I be able to read Barron’s while the vehicle “drives”?
You’ll be able to watch a movie, or doze off. Or read Barron’s. Imagine you are in your daily commute: Wouldn’t it be great to get your morning emails and texts done before you get to the office? I still believe that people are going to want to drive, because driving is fun. But there are times when it isn’t fun. If the vehicle can get you where you’re going and you can be doing something else, it just makes you more productive.
You had to pull Cruise cars from the road after an unfortunate accident. Will consumers trust robotaxis?
The people who were regularly using Cruise loved it. Ratings were very high. As you go to a new community—and this is a big lesson learned—you have to build the right relationships with local, state and federal regulators. And you also have to build a good relationship with first responders. They need to understand the technology. Over 40,000 people lose their lives in vehicle accidents every year in the U.S., and over 90% of accidents are caused by human error. Autonomous vehicles don’t drive impaired. They follow all the traffic laws.
