GM will chauffeur its employees with a fleet of autonomous Chevy Volts next year

By Andrew Hard Published October 1, 2015

Chevrolet Volt — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The top brass at General Motors dropped two major announcements during a special conference at the brand’s Milford Proving Grounds today, each one giving a unique snapshot into the automaker’s future.

In a plan to capitalize on “the future of personal mobility,” GM will build a fleet of self-driving 2017 Chevrolet Volts for employees at the newly-renovated Warren Technical Center in Michigan. Set to embark in late 2016, the vehicles will be reserved by GM staffers via a car-sharing app, which will allow them to pick a car and select a destination. Once a vehicle has been claimed, the autonomous Volts will pick up their passengers and ferry them to their destination without any driver input.

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According to the brand’s press release, “The program will serve as a rapid-development laboratory to provide data and lessons to accelerate the company’s technical capabilities in autonomous vehicles.” GM has been developing a self-driving system called “Super Cruise” for the last three years, and confirmed it will be available on the 2017 Cadillac CT6.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra and GM Executive Vice President of Global Product Development Mark Reuss — Mary Barra and Mark Reuss Image used with permission by copyright holder

In other news, GM CEO Mary Barra and GM Executive Vice President of Global Product Development Mark Reuss revealed plans to co-develop a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with Honda, and they expect the car to be ready for public use by 2020. The company also divulged that it is pursuing non-automotive uses for the fuel cell technology, including aerospace and military applications.

“The convergence of rapidly improving technology and changing consumer preferences is creating an inflection point for the transportation industry not seen in decades,” said Barra. “Some might find this massive change to be daunting, but we look at it and see the opportunity to be a disruptor. We believe our decades of leadership in vehicle connectivity is fundamental to our quest to redefine the future of personal mobility.”

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Andrew first started writing in middle school and hasn't put the pen down since. Whether it's technology, music, sports, or…

Cars

GMC poured all of its truck-making expertise into the Sierra EV pickup

A 2024 GMC Sierra EV towing an Airstream trailer.

The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks are twins, and that will continue to be the case when they go electric.
Chevy unveiled its Silverado EV at CES 2022, and now it’s GMC’s turn. The 2024 GMC Sierra EV borrows some key features from its Chevy sibling, as well GMC’s first electric truck — the Hummer EV. Some of those features were actually pioneered by General Motors two decades ago on non-electric trucks, and are now making a comeback.
You can reserve a Sierra EV now, but deliveries aren’t scheduled to start until early calendar-year 2024. Production starts with a high-end Denali Edition 1 model, with other versions arriving for the 2025 model year.

Design
The Sierra EV updates the design language of the internal-combustion GMC Sierra for the electric age. A big grille is no longer needed for cooling, but it’s still an important styling element that designers didn’t want to break away from, Sharon Gauci, GMC executive director of global design, explained to Digital Trends and other media in an online briefing ahead of the truck’s reveal. The grille shape is now outlined in lights, with an illuminated GMC logo.
Like the Hummer EV and Silverado EV, the Sierra EV uses GM’s Ultium modular battery architecture which, among other things, means the battery pack is an integral part of the structure. So unlike most other trucks — including the rival Ford F-150 Lightning — the Sierra EV doesn’t have a separate frame. The cab and bed are one piece as well, all of which helps increase structural rigidity.
The Sierra EV also borrows the Midgate setup from the Silverado EV. First seen on the Chevy Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade EXT in the early 2000s, it allows the bulkhead and glass behind the cab to be removed, effectively extending the bed. Combined with the fold-out MultiPro tailgate from the internal-combustion Sierra, it can expand the default 5.0-foot, 11-inch bed length to 10 feet, 10 inches. A frunk (GMC calls it the “eTrunk”) provides covered storage space as well.
Because it’s pitched as a premium vehicle, the Sierra EV gets upscale interior materials like open-pore wood trim and stainless steel speaker grilles for its Bose audio system. But the design itself, with a freestanding portrait touchscreen and rectangular instrument cluster, looks suspiciously similar to the Ford Mustang Mach-E cabin. The touchscreen even has the same big volume knob as the Ford. We hope GMC’s lawyers are ready.

Cars

A weird thing just happened with a fleet of autonomous cars

A passenger getting into a Cruise robotaxi.

In what must be one of the weirder stories linked to the development of autonomous vehicles, a fleet of Cruise self-driving cars gathered together at an intersection in San Francisco earlier this week, parked up, and blocked traffic for several hours. And to be clear: No, they weren't supposed to do that.

Some observers may have thought they were witnessing the start of the robot uprising, but the real reason for the mishap was more prosaic: An issue with the platform's software.

Cars

GM unveils more advanced version of its Super Cruise driver-assist system

GM's Ultra Cruise interface.

General Motors (GM) has unveiled its most advanced driver-assist system to date, called Ultra Cruise.

The new technology will exist alongside its established Super Cruise driver-assist system, with the Super version to remain available on its more mainstream vehicles and Ultra reserved for its premium motors, the American auto giant said this week.