It’s pretty difficult at this point to determine which automaker is the most serious about developing self-driving vehicles in the United States. General Motors, though, might have plans to distance itself from the pack.
The U.S. automaker plans to soon deploy 300 Chevrolet Bolts fitted with self-driving technology, Spectrum reported Friday. If true, GM would sport the world’s largest fleet of autonomous vehicles, placing it well ahead of Waymo, which currently owns the largest such fleet at nearly 80 vehicles. GM currently has around 50 driverless cars deployed across San Francisco, Scottsdale, Ariz., and Detroit.
In addition to expanding its vehicular fleet, GM plans to add more than 1,000 employees to its autonomous research team during the next four years, according to Dana Hull of Bloomberg.
Like many automakers working on self-driving technology, GM seems to be focussing on deploying the tech through a ride-hailing service.
“While we do not discuss potential future product plans, our plan is to launch our autonomous vehicle technology first in an on-demand ridesharing network,” a GM spokesperson told Spectrum.
The news follows a recent study saying GM’s primary competitor, Ford, is leading all automakers in developing autonomous tech, and a recent report that tech giant Apple plans to test self-driving cars in California.
Thumbnail photo via General Motors
