GM, Lyft to Test Self-Driving Electric Taxis
06 May 2016 - 1:40AM
Dow Jones News
General Motors Co. and Lyft Inc. will begin testing a fleet of
self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric taxis on public roads within a
year, a move central to the companies' joint efforts to challenge
Silicon Valley giants in the battle to reshape the auto
industry.
The plan is being hatched a few months after GM invested $500
million in Lyft, a ride-hailing company that rivals Uber
Technologies Inc. The program will rely on technology the being
acquired as part of GM's separate $1 billion planned purchase of
San Francisco-based Cruise Automation Inc., which has been working
on self-driving technology for about two years.
Details of the autonomous-testing program are still being worked
out, according to a Lyft executive, but it will include real
customers and based in a yet-to-be disclosed city. Customers will
have the opportunity to opt in or out of the pilot when hailing a
Lyft car from the company's mobile app.
In addition to driverless cars, the Detroit auto giant aims to
use Lyft and its growing army of drivers as a primary customer for
the Bolt, an electric car that launches later this year amid soft
demand for electric vehicles. GM and Lyft currently rent out the
Chevy Equinox to drivers needing vehicles in Chicago, but that
program will expand to more cities and rely heavily on Bolts in the
future instead of small sport-utility vehicles.
Because the Bolt's battery is under the floor, it opens up space
in the front of the vehicle and offers back seat passengers more
leg room. GM executives have touted the car as an ideal fit for
drivers needing space and lower operating cost.
GM's effort to rapidly hem together recent big-dollar
investments is an answer to the tech industry's efforts to displace
conventional auto makers. Many global auto makers have been lapped
by key developments born in Silicon Valley, including Tesla Motors
Inc.'s electric cars, Alphabet Inc.'s autonomous Google car program
and Uber's ride-sharing business.
The effort is most directed at challenging Alphabet and Uber.
The Google self-driving car program has gained a sizable lead over
conventional auto makers via testing in California and other
states, and it received an additional boost this week after inking
a minivan-supply agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Uber,
much bigger than Lyft, has its own self-driving research center in
Pittsburgh and is preparing for autonomous vehicles in its fleet by
2020.
Executives at Lyft and Uber have said one of the top hurdles to
success is navigating a patchwork of regulations that govern the
use of autonomous vehicles and liabilities. In an effort to ease
regulatory concerns, Lyft will start with autonomous cars that have
drivers in the cockpit ready to intervene—but the driver is
expected to eventually be obsolete.
"We will want to vet the autonomous tech between Cruise, GM and
ourselves and slowly introduce this into markets," Taggart
Matthiesen, Lyft's product director, said in an interview. That
will "ensure that cities would have full understanding of what we
are trying to do here."
Mr. Matthiesen said his company also is working out how to
design the program by which Chevy Bolts would be available to
prospective Lyft drivers, many of whom can't obtain acceptable
vehicles to taxi around customers.
"Really the question is: 'Is it Lyft that owns the vehicles or
is it GM that owns the vehicles?'" At the Chicago hub, GM owns the
vehicles and dealers service them.
Although Tesla has created demand for high-price electric
vehicles and has a long waiting list for a car designed to compete
with the Bolt in 2017, other auto makers haven't been as
successful, especially as gasoline prices are low. Electric
vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles make up less than 2% of
vehicles sold, according to Edmunds, and sales of pure electric
cars like Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf have generally been modest.
Write to Mike Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com and Gautham
Nagesh at gautham.nagesh@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 05, 2016 11:25 ET (15:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024