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TEHRAN, October 24 - sources say that some unexpected technical challenges mean putting GM’s driverless cars on the road in a large scale way in 2019 is looking highly unlikely.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -It’s one of the biggest bets going in the world of cars. Since May, General Motors Co (GM.N) and its Cruise self-driving car unit have landed $5 billion in investment commitments from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) and Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T) to develop a robot taxi service that could safely navigate the city streets of San Francisco by the end of next year - putting it ahead Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Waymo self-driving car unit, Uber and Lyft.
Those expectations are now hitting speed bumps, according to interviews with eight current and former GM and Cruise employees and executives, along with nine autonomous vehicle technology experts familiar with Cruise. These sources say that some unexpected technical challenges - including the difficulty that Cruise cars have identifying whether objects are in motion - mean putting GM’s driverless cars on the road in a large scale way in 2019 is looking highly unlikely.
“Nothing is on schedule,” said one GM source, referring to certain mileage targets and other milestones the company has already missed.
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told Reuters last month the service will offer passengers “a primary form of transportation” most anywhere they want to go, and compete with Uber and Lyft. Using driverless cars to carry fare-paying customers would allow Cruise to recover investments in expensive technology and turn a profit more rapidly than trying to sell self-driving cars to the few individual customers who could afford them.
In addition, operating self-driving cars in a taxi service would allow Cruise and GM to tailor the service to the limitations of the technology until software and sensors are ready to enable autonomous vehicles that can go anywhere.
“Based on where we’re at and where we’ve been, we’re on track to hit that” 2019 goal, Vogt said.
Still, some close to the project acknowledge the length of time and money it will take to get the ride hailing service up and running.
“We know we aren’t commercially ready now,” said Michael Ronen, managing partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers and the firm’s lead investor on the Cruise deal who will join Cruise’s board of directors. “I think now the question is who is going to be successful and how quickly.”
Source: Reuters
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