Chevy Bolt self driving fleet expanded to 180
General Motors is expanding its fleet of Chevy Bolt autonomous electric vehicles to 180, joining the existing fleet of 50 Bolts under testing in San Francisco, Scottsdale, Arizona and metro Detroit.
The 130 cars rolled off the production line from the Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township, Michigan on Tuesday.
“This production milestone brings us one step closer to making our vision of personal mobility a reality,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra.
GM became the first company to assemble self-driving test vehicles at a mass production facility after the Chevy Bolt EV test vehicles were introduced in January.
The self driving Chevy Bolt EVs feature the surveying method known as LIDAR, cameras, sensors and other hardware designed to accelerate development of the vehicle to become fully autonomous.
“To achieve what we want from self-driving cars, we must deploy them at scale,” said Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt.
“By developing the next-generation self-driving platform in San Francisco and manufacturing these cars in Michigan, we are creating the safest and most consistent conditions to bring our cars to the most challenging urban roads that we can find.”
GM and Cruise Automation engineers have been testing Chevrolet Bolt EVs equipped with self-driving technology on public roads in San Francisco and Scottsdale, Arizona, since June 2016 and on public roads in Warren, Michigan, since January 2017.
In April, Apple secured a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test three autonomous SUVs. In an interview with Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook said self driving cars were “the mother of all AI projects,” adding its “probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on.”
Waymo from Alphabet says it is planning a bigger autonomous fleet than GM’s, using 500 customized Chrylser Pacifica minivans to start an early-rider service in Phoenix this year.
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