General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra announced production next month of fully autonomous versions of the new Chevrolet Bolt EV at its Orion Township assembly plant and immediately will expand on-road testing of its current fleet of fully autonomous vehicles on public roads in Michigan. That move follows recent passage of the state’s SAVE Act, which is designed to help support accelerated development of connected and autonomous vehicles.
GM has been doing real-world evaluation of about 40 self-driving Bolt EVs in Arizona and California since June. Initially, tests on what is expected to be a considerably larger Michigan-based fleet will be confined to streets around GM’s Technical Campus in Warren, but later it will spread to encompass the Detroit Metro area, as well. All of the new Bolt EVs will be equipped with the latest LIDAR, cameras, sensors and other associated hardware to ensure their safe operation in all types of weather. Michigan testing will see how well the cars cope with extreme cold and snow.
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“Revolutionizing transportation for our customers while improving safety on roads is the goal of our autonomous vehicle technology, and today’s announcement gets us one step closer to making this vision a reality,” noted Barra. “Our autonomous technology will be reliable and safe, as customers have come to expect from any of our vehicles.”
