General Motors of Robotaksi

2017: Plans for start of service of the robotaxi

At the end of November, 2017 General Motors (GM) called terms of start of service of the robotaxi at the end of 2017. Other car makers have plans for similar projects also, however GM has chance to become the pioneer of this market.

During the conference with participation of investors the management of GM said that by 2019 in the USA the commercial service for transportation of passengers using unmanned vehicles will be started. By then the company intends to complete testing of self-governed machines which by November, 2017 are carried out in a number of the American cities.

Demonstration of the GM Bolt EV unmanned vehicle

As the chief financial officer of GM  Chuck Stevens reported, the new service will be able to offer trips worth $1 for mile by 2025 against about $2.5 at traditional services of the order. The profit margin in this segment can exceed profitability of its core business on production of cars approximately by 4 times, he noted.

According to the president of GM  Dan Ammann, one robomobile "hundreds of thousands of dollars" can generate revenues for all life. For comparison, income from the normal machine at the company is about $30 thousand, the most part of this amount is the share of direct sale of the vehicle to dealers, Reuters reports.^[1]

At the end of November, 2017 showed to General Motors in San Francisco the growing park managed by the computer and with a battery supply of the Chevrolet Bolt cars for a great number of the investment analysts wishing to estimate the advanced test cars of car maker.

Other American car maker — Ford Motor — is going to start the similar project of the robotaxi for two years after GM. The Japanese Toyota Motor intends to use pilotless taxi at the Olympic Games which will take place in Tokyo in 2020. The French-Japanese alliance Renault Nissan is going to start similar service by 2022.

Robotics

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