GM's First Self-Driving Car Ends Up In Surprising Place

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
3-12-2019

The very first self-driving vehicle that GM ever produced has been acquired by the Henry Ford museum.  The vehicle is built upon a pre-production Chevy Bolt battery-electric vehicle. The vehicle was tested in San Fransisco, California starting back in 2016. It was built by Cruise Automation, GM's autonomy company. 

 

GM's President, Mark Reuss, was on hand at the ceremony and https://www.wxyz.com/news/the-henry-ford-acquires-gms-first-self-driving-test-vehiclehad this to say, “Autonomous vehicles will change people’s lives forever, just as the automobile itself did more than a hundred years ago. The Henry Ford is a treasured institution where past and present innovations are documented and displayed, and GM is proud to provide our autonomous test vehicle to serve as an inspiration to the innovators of tomorrow.”

 

Patricia Mooradian, president and CEO, The Henry Ford museum, added, "Self-driving capabilities will fundamentally change our relationship with the automobile. As the home of the historic vehicles that have shaped that relationship today, this acquisition is paramount in how we tell that story in the future.”

 

 

 

 

[Colossus]

Self driving vehicles don't have to become the norm if we don't let them.  Fight the technology. 

[Daverado]

On 3/13/2019 at 3:16 PM, Colossus said:

Self driving vehicles don't have to become the norm if we don't let them.  Fight the technology. 

I think the jury is still out on whether cars are good drivers or not, but there's no question there are plenty of humans that should not be driving.

Edited March 15, 2019 by Daverado

[EpicLT]

9 hours ago, Daverado said:

I think the jury is still out on whether cars are good drivers or not, but there's no question there are plenty of human's that should not be driving.

While I agree (especially down in FL with the 95 year olds driving with high beams on at noon), I enjoy driving myself. Call me crazy, but if I am going somewhere, I just like to be in control of my own transportation. I don't know how much I would enjoy my car fighting me if I tried to change lanes without a blinker, etc...

[SILVER SLED]

I have a friend that works at U of M. They are doing a lot of R and D on self driving cars.  They have them for shuttles in the summer and a lot of other applications in the summer.  The problem they are having is with snow.  The sensors can't tell that snow is snow or another object.  I've heard a lot of cool things about self driving cars. How 20 of them in close quarters, like a traffic jam, react.... 

 

I feel though if we go to self driving cars, and it is the norm, the speed limits could be raised based on the assumption the cars can drive better than a human. 

 

However, I love to drive. I don't see myself having one until maybe I can't drive. 

[dieselfan1]

Self driving cars are a joke.

What about in fog or heavy rain?

Not to mention snow the previous poster said. Or glare ice. What's it going to do slow down to 3 mph?

We don't need self driving cars. Dumb with a capital D.

You'll never see me own one.  

[redwngr]

Never is a long time.

 

I've heard that comment made about many of the technologies that are now widely accepted and used. 

 

But as always, the market will decide.

Edited March 18, 2019 by redwngr

[mpzz]

There's no way self-driving cars will ever be feasible or practical.  Changing road conditions, different roads, different or unexpected obstacles, other traffic, weather....   There are far too many variables for a self-driving car to have to react to for one to ever be programmed in a safe and practical way.   What's improved by having a bunch of cars buzzing around with no drivers?  If you don't want to drive, mass transportation is obviously the way to get around.  It's cheaper, safer, more practical, less traffic, less polluting...  There is simply no reason to have self-driving cars.  There's no advantage to them.

[gearheadesw]

Self driving cars can only be used if all other cars on the road are the same self driving BS. A car can't react to something that's not programed into the computer, and how many times a day do you see things that make you say WTF.  While you slow down and shake your head, the self driving car doesn't even know something wrong is going on. There is millions of things that need to be observed and entered into the driving equation every minute, do you really think we can put that into a cars computer?? Unless all vehicles are autonomous, they will never work. That includes bicycles, motorcycles, everything that is actually on the road way.

Edited March 18, 2019 by gearheadesw

[wforrest08]

The Henry Ford Museum/Ford village should be on all car guys bucket list. It spans automotive history from the self propelled buckboard to modern day ALL kinds of makes and models of vehicles. We spent the whole day there and still didn’t see/do it all. Absolutely amazing facility and extremely well laid out. 

 

I also highly recommend the Ford Piquette Ave. plant guided tour. It’s crazy the amount of Ts they produced in such a small factory.

 

 Whether you hate or love Ford there is no denying that Henry is the reason the US automotive industry is what it is today. 

 

My wife thought I was nuts when I said I wanted to go to Detroit as part of our vacation a couple of years ago. She apparently believed all the hype on the “news” about how horrible, ran down, blah blah blah Detroit is. She actually ended up really liking it and even commented one morning at breakfast on how the media so over exaggerated how “bad” Detroit is...