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GM, Lyft to test self-driving cars within a year

General Motors and Lyft will test a fleet of autonomous cars that may include the Chevrolet Bolt EV within a year in a step toward eliminating the major cost of operating ride-sharing fleets, the human driver.

General Motors and Lyft will test a fleet of autonomous cars that may include the Chevrolet Bolt EV within a year in a step toward eliminating the major cost of operating ride-sharing fleets, the human driver.

 

The plan is still a work in progress, according to Taggart Matthiesen, Lyft director of product. The two companies have not chosen the city, nor have they settled on which GM vehicles would be used in the pilot program. 

"At first we're talking about a very small number of vehicles," said Matthiesen, who will speak Friday afternoon at the Detroit Techweek conference. "You'd start with a handful and slowly increase the supply as you gain confidence. Safety is paramount."

GM declined to confirm a timetable for any test of fully autonomous cars, but in a statement acknowledged that it and Lyft are pursuing an "on-demand autonomous network." 

"Similarly, we have said the Chevrolet Bolt EV is the ideal platform for ride-sharing solutions. We believe electrification blends perfectly with autonomy when it comes to technology integration,” read the statement.

The Bolt design, which features a very high level of wireless connectivity, could be a test bed for full, or Level 4, autonomy.

The location of the testing is still being discussed. Finding a city and state where regulations will permit operating vehicles without a driver could be one of the program's biggest challenges, although Lyft officials said the initial tests will be done with human drivers who will take control if needed.  

One thing that could affect the timing of the testing is that it could incorporate some of the technology GM is trying to purchase in its acquisition of Cruise Automation, a three-year-old San Francisco start-up for which GM has offered to pay about $1 billion. GM has said it wants to close the acquisition by the end of June, but that could be delayed. Matthiesen said both Lyft and GM will want to validate the Cruise Automation system before taking it on public roads. 

In January, GM announced it was investing $500 million in Lyft, the second-largest ride-sharing service in the U.S. after Uber. 

In March, the two companies launched a program in Chicago that will allow current Lyft drivers to rent GM cars. The pilot program, called Express Drive, will offer GM vehicles to Lyft drivers for $99 a week for up to eight weeks. The $99 will be waived to Lyft drivers in Chicago who log 65 or more rides per week. Initially, the vehicles will be Chevrolet Equinox crossovers.

Matthiesen said Lyft does not envision a wholesale shift from providing rides with drivers only to serving all customers with self-driving vehicles. 

"We want to slowly evolve this option into our service," he said. "We could have pockets of innovation within a small set of cities where a few rides could be provided with fully autonomous vehicles."

There almost certainly will be restrictions on which streets will be navigable by self-driving vehicles and the speeds will be relatively low, he said.

 


Contact Greg Gardner: (313) 222-8762 or ggardner@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregGardner12

 

 

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