Why Safe Deployment Drives Everything In Our Self-driving Vehicles

At 通用汽车 and at Cruise , we are excited about the world-changing benefits autonomous vehicles and hands-free driving technology will bring to our customers, and to society in general.?

Yesterday at SXSW in Austin, I joined Kyle Vogt , Cruise CEO, chief technology officer, president and co-founder to talk about delivering AVs at scale, and why Cruise is the clear industry leader. Operations are running and continue to expand in San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix.?

We are moving at incredible speed because we invested in the best teams and empowered them to innovate.

It was just over a year ago that I took my first driverless ride in San Francisco. Since then, Cruise has logged more than a million driverless miles, opened paid ride hailing to the public, and is rapidly scaling services in new markets.?

Purposeful Progress Paying Off

Because of the great collaboration between the GM and Cruise teams, self-driving vehicles are no longer science fiction – they are operating?today?on real roads, with real customers.

AVs give customers the priceless gift of time versus being behind the wheel, and they offer safe and reliable transportation to those who cannot drive or own a vehicle.?

The most significant benefit, though, is safety.?AVs will help us achieve our vision of a world with zero crashes because, unlike too many human drivers today, they obey traffic rules and are not distracted or impaired.

Commitment to Safe Deployment

To realize the full benefits of AVs, customers must trust them. So the safe deployment of this technology , as well as today’s advanced driver assistance systems like Super Cruise, is and will always be our North Star.?

While Cruise continues to grow, in parallel, more and more of our customers are enjoying and using hands-free driving in their own cars with innovations like Super Cruise.??

When we introduced Super Cruise in 2017, it was the industry’s first truly hands-free advanced driver assistance system – and importantly, the first with a driver attention system to help ensure that drivers remain focused when it’s engaged.?

We keep expanding Super Cruise across our lineup because customers love it – the technology is now available on more than 400,000 miles of mapped highways in the U.S. and Canada. And overall customers have traveled more than 50 million hands-free miles.

What’s Next?

Last week, we shared more details about Ultra Cruise, our next-gen, hands-free driver assistance system that will debut on the Cadillac CELESTIQ. Unlike some competitors’ systems, it includes LiDAR and radar – in addition to cameras – all working simultaneously to give Ultra Cruise a 360-degree view of the vehicle’s surroundings.

As we bring the purpose-built Cruise Origin and personal autonomous vehicles to market, safety will always lead the way.?

At the same time, we are advancing toward a zero-emissions future as we scale production of high-volume and affordable electric vehicles from our flexible Ultium Platform providing our customers choice.

It’s a critical year for autonomous and electric vehicles – and their power to change the world. I’m so proud of our talented GM and Cruise teams as we lead the journey to a future that will be safer and better for everyone.