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General Motors has showcased its plan to launch public ride-hailing services by teasing a self-driving vehicle with no manual controls whatsoever. The fleet is said to arrive in 2019, which gives us plenty of time to form an angry mob.
On Thursday, the company announced it had submitted a safety petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requesting that autonomous Chevrolet Bolts be allowed to operate on public roads without adhering to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards that pertain to actual driving.
If you’re asking yourself if this is even allowable, it is. The NHTSA’s updated autonomous safety guidance essentially gives automakers carte blanche to do whatever they want when it comes to autonomous testing. GM also said it filed the petition in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, meaning it’s probably going to get the green light on this.
When it does, the company plants to add up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles per year as part of an autonomous taxi service. The initial vehicle will be the Cruise AV, which is basically the Bolt without a steering wheel. As this is the first application of its kind, GM can frame this as test platform and take full advantage of the freshly relaxed standards of the Department of Transportation and NHTSA.
The automaker, however, promises it is pursuing safety relentlessly — releasing an extensive Self-Driving Safety Report for 2018. While the report reads like propaganda as much as it does a factual assessment of the company’s autonomous strategy, it does prove the automaker’s taking the matter seriously. Of course, being one of the first automakers to dive into a new market, there is no way it wouldn’t be.
“We’re seeking to maintain the same, equal safety but to achieve the safety objectives of some standards in a different way,” Paul Hemmersbaugh, a former chief counsel for NHTSA who now serves as chief counsel for GM’s mobility efforts, told Automotive News. “…we can’t achieve them without a human driver or without a steering wheel [under the current standards].”
As the images provided by General Motors are renderings (check out the odd alignment of the center stack), we don’t know if the pictured vehicle represents a functional prototype or something more conceptual. The final version of the Cruise AV may not look exactly like this but, based on what the company says, it won’t have driving controls of any kind.
That bothers us. It isn’t because we’re entirely adverse to autonomous functions; we think Cadillac’s SuperCruise system is borderline miraculous. But this sets a precedent for removing the driving element from cars altogether. It’s the first physical step in Bob Lutz’s doomsday scenario for driving — a dystopian society where the manual operation of an automobile becomes illegal. We thought it was pure conjecture, a hypothetical path that could take place in some far-off future after we are all dead and buried. But the groundwork is being established by one of the world’s largest automakers as early as next year.
No pedals? No Steering wheel? No thanks, GM.
[Image: General Motors]
Has anyone ever touched the trim material (white) on the doors and dash of the Bolt, much like what you see above?
The texture on that stuff made my skin crawl.
So sensitive…
One of those unearthly textures only GM seems to make. There were two of them in my G8, one on the shift boot (which felt like alien amphibian skin) and one on the top of the dash (which felt a bit like nonslip stair matting).
FreedMike you should just try and feel it if you get a chance. It’s hard to describe – somewhere between a cheap placemat and a chalkboard.
This just means I’ll have to go look at it. Darn it, I HATE looking at cars.
The only reason I saw and felt one up was because it was sitting at that Green Cars event I went to, where they had the Workhorse W15.
I’d be interested, for no other reason than to see how it drives. I’ve heard pretty good things about it.
Uggggg the top picture creeps me out.
I have no mouth and I must scream.
Ditto.
Like a bad dream.
It is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.
First they came for the clutch pedals
And I did not speak out
Because I could get by with an automatic
…
I can’t remember anything
Can’t tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel the scream
This terrible silence stops me
Well, if GM promises, I guess it’s okay. Good grief.
Where does the Johnny Cab guy sit?
In a blackmirrorian twist, Johnny is a cloned reproduction of your own brain, tortured into compliance and condemned to live out the rest of its life inside a Bolt.
“On Thursday, the company announced it had submitted a safety petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requesting that autonomous Chevrolet Bolts be allowed to operate on public roads without adhering to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards that pertain to actual driving.”
Sounds pretty safe to me.
How do you blow the horn?
Smartphone, duh. That’s also where the emergency controls pop up.
Imagine the car hitting a patch of black ice, and then you get a text. “You need to take over!” Of course, only your widow will ever read it.
Well, there’s at least one group of people that will be like these cars:
http://www.insurancefraud.org/scam-alerts-staged-crash.htm
Good luck GM. Once the criminal element finds the weaknesses… and they will find the weaknesses:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/27/lidar_spoofed_bad_news_for_self_driving_cars/
There’s going to be a backlash once these cars make sexual assault super easy. Two or three cars actually driven by guys with bad intentions find one of these things with a sole female occupant and box it in until it gives up and stops. Easier than delivery.
where are the trey tables, power outlets?
And where does the big screen TV go?
Yeah if I don’t have to drive then I’d better get a HUGE screen and place for my beer!
…. Now from the Bean Counters at GM. “Frank I just figured out how to save about $1,000 per unit.” Frank: “How?” … “Well we just figured out how to eliminate the ignition key and lock, steering wheel, column, brake, accelerator and em the brake pedal too” Frank: “This is excellent! my bonus is going to be thru the roof, Fiji here I come”!
Why no “OH SH_T !” bars?
Because it’ll be more like “ho-hum, we’re never going to break 20 mph, are we?”
Di3s it at least have an emergency brake, be it a foot pedal or handle? What do you do when you have to park in a hill, or there is an emergency and the elecrmtronics fail? We know there will be some glitches and there needs to be human interaction to stop the crazy thing.
You’ll waive your right to stop the crazy thing every time you click the “I agree” button on that big screen.
Why doesn’t this car have air bags?
Because accidents *do not* happen when humans aren’t in control. Duh.
If it is a self driving car, why does it still have high powered head lights since human eyes won’t be needed to drive the car? They would only need dim, markers so that oncoming cars know it is there.
– Idon’t see anything
– I see everything
Second last paragraph: averse, not adverse. You’re welcome.
No worse than what it “plants” to do.
many have claimed The Boss prophetic.
in the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines
I tend to cruise down the boulevard in my Hemi powered drone. It’s sad, the Boss(?) once wrote songs that eroticized the automobile and praised the freedom that was possible with a car. Now he’s a socialist dirtbag.
Dilly dilly.
Its also sad that about 98% of the cars made in the past 30 years aren’t worth immortalizing in a song. Some rap songs might drone about some benz on dubs but meh. When you hear Mustang Sally, or Clutch talking about a Dodge Swinger, 1973 or Deep Purple’s Highway Star (which I picture as a ’71-’74 RoadRunner or Charger) theres just no way a cammaccord type sedan could possibly have that kind of mystique. Any electric hybrid self driving pod…no effin way, even Bieber wouldn’t stoop that low.
great music, lousy politics.
He probably should have hung it up after “Darkness on the Edge of Town”. “Racing In the Streets” was one of his best car songs.
the ultimate car tune – Thunder Road…
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Well, the night’s busting open, these two lanes will take us anywhere
talentless right wing turds never make good music though
Well, I guess it’s safer than my GM product with the shrapnel in the airbag.
I asked earlier why dtjis car doesn’t have air bags. Maybe that’s why.
Does it give you a warning to duck before decapitating itself by driving under a semi-trailer?
No, but it does notify the ad networks to start displaying funeral home ads to your next of kin.
haha
I think if youre willing to lower yourself to being shuttled around in autonomous pods then that semi trailer is probably a sweet release. JMHO.
Now we can all get R.H. and not worry about the steering wheel…
If you see it outside – burn it. Damn, I gonna burn my monitor just for showing it
Haven’t we learned from the movies that we always need a manual override!
At least we can still control the hazard button.
These will certainly make robbing or (as mentioned) assaulting people much easier, so, there’s that.
What a nicely clean interior. Sigh.
Who here has noticed a pilot manually flying landing plane? It happens all the time because a computer can’t be programmed to react to complicated wind conditions. Modern aircraft have technology that works way better than the current camera, radar and laser systems that are being used to try and automate cars. With all that excellent technology, pilots still have to take over on a regular basis. Why we would think that autonomous vehicle technology is anywhere near the point that you could go away from a human override is beyond me.
And what does the passenger do if the system screws up? You’d think they would at least put in a brake pedal to allow for a manual panic stop. I seem to remember that public transportation has some sort of pull cord to stop the vehicle in an emergency (or to signal an upcoming unscheduled stop.