A video released on Friday by GM’s Cruise where GM’s CEO rides her first driverless vehicle, a fully autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EV named “Tostada”. Cruise Co-Founder, Interim-CEO, and CTO Kyle Vogt take Barra on a ride. It was seen that the ride was pleasant and mostly there was nothing to worry about. It took place on San Fransico roads, near Bay Area.
Barra took the ride last week in a retrofitted Chevrolet Bolt EV with Kyle Vogt, founder and interim CEO of Cruise, the automaker’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary. Barra says in the video, “That was incredible. This is going to change the way people move in such a positive way … I’m over the moon.”
Vogt stepped in as CEO after Dan Ammann, a former GM executive who was leading Cruise, was reportedly ousted over internal disagreements with Barra. Autonomous vehicles are viewed as a potential multitrillion-dollar market. GM expects the operations to potentially contribute up to $50 billion in annualized revenue by the end of this decade. However, commercializing self-driving vehicles has been far more challenging than many predicted even a few years ago.
Experiencing driverless vehicle
So far Tesla’s driver-assist features have proven to be interesting as many videos are often posted by users. This is a new view for people, as more self-driving cars are expected in the coming years. The video shows shots of various other GM executives sitting in the second row of an autonomous Bolt, thoroughly impressed. GM President Mark Reuss calls the ride “mind-blowing.” Reuss, as well as GM’s vice president of communications Craig Buchholz, was actually riding in a second self-driving Chevy named “Disco.”
Cruise late last year began testing a fully driverless fleet of vehicles without human backup drivers. In November, Cruise posted a video of Vogt during his first driverless ride in San Francisco.
I took my first @Cruise driverless ride in San Francisco with @kvogt, and it was nothing short of incredible. This is the type of experience we used to dream about, and now with Cruise, our autonomous future is here. Congrats, Cruise team! https://t.co/X9aBKR1wiU
— Mary Barra (@mtbarra) January 27, 2022
Reuss calls the drive “unbelievable,” discussing the performance of the vehicle and its potential impact on society. Including senior citizens such as his 85-year-old father, Lloyd Reuss, who also served as president of the automaker during the early ’90s. It isn’t just suitable for a specific set of people, the autonomous feature could be on ride-hailing vehicles, personal vehicles, and for delivery purposes. Once the technology is ready the applications are unlimited. As many automakers and tech innovations are being involved in the autonomous aspects. As it is about the safety of the passengers, there are times it is also being criticized. However, with time regulators are also working on making it safe and adaptable for people to use the technology for their benefit.
