Taxis in GM’s service will soon be fully autonomous, relying on special technology to navigate even complex surroundings without the help of a human guide. Although GM is a newcomer to this industry, it hopes to finish its first fleet by the end of this year. It started by acquiring startup Cruise Automation for an estimated $1 billion almost 3 years ago, in 2016.
According to president of GM Dan Amman, the potential revenue from an autonomous taxi will be much greater than that from the cars sold by GM today. Each one could earn “several hundred thousands of dollars” compared to the average $30,000 earned from every GM car sold.
Amman says, “If we continue on our current rate of change we will be ready to deploy this technology, in large scale, in the most complex environments, in 2019.”
Some of the other companies who are also planning autonomous services this year are Ford, Waymo, Uber, and Tesla. Tesla currently already has models that offer autonomous features, but the company is planning to launch fully autonomous cars in the next few years.
