General Motors on Thursday revealed their vision for self-driving cars in a challenge to rivals such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo. The company revealed to the investors that it has planned a commercial launch of fleets of fully autonomous Robo-taxis in multiple dense urban environments in 2019.
Sensing the potential opportunity ahead, GM President Dan Ammann told investors that the lifetime revenue generation of one of its self-driving cars could eventually be in the “several hundred thousands of dollars.” It is measured to $30,000 on average that GM bring together today for one of its vehicles, mostly derived from the initial sale.
GM is the No.1 automaker in the U.S and it sees electric and autonomous vehicles are the keystones of future transport. Thus the company is focusing on rolling out self-driving cars since its estimated $1 billion acquisition of startup Cruise Automation in early 2016, which facilitated a toehold in the nascent industry.
GM’s rivals such as Waymo and Uber Technologies have invested billions into the competitive industry. All three of the companies are now trying to outwit each other to gain first-mover advantage. Robo-taxi services are viewed as the primary use of most self-driving vehicles, counting GM’s Chevrolet Bolt.
“If we continue at our current rate of change we will be ready to deploy this technology, in large scale, in the most complex environments, in 2019,” Ammann said.
GM’s President went on to say that safety, however, will be the deciding factor on when to take the driver out of the car.
Just recently, GM enjoyed a surge in its share price while investors funded for its plans for self-driving and electric cars, even though the company’s profit is driven completely by demand for trucks and SUVs in North America, and its growing sales in China.
On Thursday afternoon, GM saw a downward surge of their shares by 1.7 percent at $43.05.