GM is creating a team to work on self-driving and electric cars

By Lulu Chang Published January 29, 2016

Sure, GM may have just pushed the date back on its autonomous driving feature, but that’s not stopping the car manufacturer from dreaming bigger than ever. On Thursday, the Detroit-based company announced the creation of a team dedicated to developing self-driving and electric cars, perhaps even finding a way for these two technologies to intersect with one another.

At the helm of this new venture will be Doug Parks, who currently serves as the vice president for global product programs. According to reports, Parks’ responsibilities will include overlooking “efforts to develop new electrical and battery systems and software” for the cars of the future.

Recommended Videos

Later this year, GM is expected to release the Chevrolet Bolt, a next-generation electric vehicle that would be able to go 200 miles on a single charge. The price tag currently sits at just $35,000 — considerably less than a Tesla would cost you. Other electric vehicles on the market today are capable of going only half the range of the Bolt — at least, at that price point.

And as far as autonomous cars go, GM has certainly made a number of moves in the new year that reflect its dedication to the new technology. Earlier in January, the car maker invested half a billion dollars in Lyft, with the hopes of developing a fleet of driverless cars that could be hired on demand.

We’re just a month into 2016, but it’s shaping up to be one of the more innovative years to date for the 108-year-old company. And as the firm continues to explore new possibilities in the realms of both electric and autonomous vehicles, GM just might be setting the trend for the next 100 years. So no — you won’t see the Super Cruise feature as soon as expected. But once this team has been given a little time, maybe you’ll see something even better.

Former Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Topics

Cars

Waymo lays groundwork for robotaxi revolution

A Waymo car production line.

In recent years, Waymo has been edging toward its long-held goal of revolutionizing urban transportation by deploying a fully autonomous, scalable, and sustainable ride-hailing service.

The Alphabet-owned company has just taken another step in that direction with the opening of a new vehicle factory in Metro Phoenix, Arizona, in partnership with automaker Magna.

Cars

Waymo and Toyota explore personally owned self-driving cars

Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

Waymo and Toyota have announced they’re exploring a strategic collaboration—and one of the most exciting possibilities on the table is bringing fully-automated driving technology to personally owned vehicles.
Alphabet-owned Waymo has made its name with its robotaxi service, the only one currently operating in the U.S. Its vehicles, including Jaguars and Hyundai Ioniq 5s, have logged tens of millions of autonomous miles on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.
But shifting to personally owned self-driving cars is a much more complex challenge.
While safety regulations are expected to loosen under the Trump administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has so far taken a cautious approach to the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. General Motors-backed Cruise robotaxi was forced to suspend operations in 2023 following a fatal collision.
While the partnership with Toyota is still in the early stages, Waymo says it will initially study how to merge its autonomous systems with the Japanese automaker’s consumer vehicle platforms.
In a recent call with analysts, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai signaled that Waymo is seriously considering expanding beyond ride-hailing fleets and into personal ownership. While nothing is confirmed, the partnership with Toyota adds credibility—and manufacturing muscle—to that vision.
Toyota brings decades of safety innovation to the table, including its widely adopted Toyota Safety Sense technology. Through its software division, Woven by Toyota, the company is also pushing into next-generation vehicle platforms. With Waymo, Toyota is now also looking at how automation can evolve beyond assisted driving and into full autonomy for individual drivers.
This move also turns up the heat on Tesla, which has long promised fully self-driving vehicles for consumers. While Tesla continues to refine its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, it remains supervised and hasn’t yet delivered on full autonomy. CEO Elon Musk is promising to launch some of its first robotaxis in Austin in June.
When it comes to self-driving cars, Waymo and Tesla are taking very different roads. Tesla aims to deliver affordability and scale with its camera, AI-based software. Waymo, by contrast, uses a more expensive technology relying on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar), that regulators have been quicker to trust.

Cars

Lucid Gravity shifts electric SUVs into a new orbit

2025 Lucid Gravity front quarter view.

After a very long takeoff roll, the Lucid Air electric luxury sedan arrived in 2020 and reset expectations for EV range, efficiency, and charging. The Air is an excellent first effort, but as a sedan its sales potential is inherently limited. So the 2025 Lucid Gravity — the automaker’s second model and first SUV — may be even more important for Lucid’s future.

Available in two-row, five-seat and three-row, seven-seat configurations, the Gravity aims to attract the much larger cohort of new car buyers who want extra space, or need a vehicle to accommodate their families and Instagram-worthy lifestyles. But those buyers already have plenty of choices, including the Cadillac Escalade IQ, Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, Rivian R1S, and Volvo EX90, as well as the two-row BMW iX.