DETROIT (dpa-AFX) – Robotaxis of the US car giant General Motors now make more than 10,000 trips with passengers per week. GM now wants to rapidly expand the business of its robot car company Cruise: In addition to the three US cities so far, two or three more are to be added in the next few months. The new “Origin” robotic taxi without steering wheel and pedals, which is to replace today’s converted models, is already being tested in autonomous operation at several locations, Cruise boss Kyle Vogt said on Tuesday.
Cruise currently operates robotaxi services in San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix. The small electric cars of the Chevy Bolt model, which have been converted into self-driving cars, are already often on the road without a safety driver at the wheel.
The hype around self-driving cars has cooled noticeably in recent years, and only a few companies like Cruise and Google (Alphabet C (ex Google)) sister company Waymo are actively building robotaxi services.
One reason for the reluctance is cost. Among other things, the laser radars that scan the surroundings of the vehicles make the autonomous cars expensive. Tesla boss Elon Musk So, in a break with the rest of the industry, it wants to only equip self-driving cars with cameras. He has also been promising a robotaxi from Tesla for some time, but this has not yet been presented.
Cruise and GM are currently developing a technical platform for the “Origin” robotic taxis that will be 75 percent cheaper, Vogt said. It should be introduced by the end of next year.
Vogt emphasized that the “magic threshold” of less than one dollar per mile would then be in sight, from which it would be cheaper for most people to drive a robotaxi than to own a car. “It is clear that Cruise is no longer a research project.” At the same time, it is foreseeable that even with the expansion of the Robotaxi services, demand will still be higher than supply for years to come, Vogt admitted.
General Motors is currently trying to expand the production of electric models in fierce competition with Tesla. Around 50,000 vehicles were built in North America in the first half of the year. By the middle of next year there should be around 400,000, confirmed GM boss Mary Barra. Problems at a supplier slowed production, she said, calling it disappointing. There should be a new model of the small Chevy Bolt that was to be discontinued.
Attention is now turning to competition in pickup trucks, the most popular and therefore most lucrative category in the US. So far, vehicles with combustion engines from the big car companies have dominated here. But Tesla is preparing an attack on the top dogs with its electric “cybertruck”. General Motors is countering this with a battery-powered Chevy Silverado, and Ford (Ford Motor) is offering an electric version of the best-selling F-150.
Overall, GM expects better business in the current year than before after a jump in profits. Barra now expects net profit of $9.3 to $10.7 billion for 2023 instead of the previous forecast of $8.4 to $9.9 billion. In the second quarter, GM increased sales by a quarter year over year to $44.7 billion. The bottom line is that profits rose by a good half to almost $2.6 billion./so/DP/nas
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