CES 2008: Wagoner expected to announce driverless cars within a decade
General Motors' CEO Rick Wagoner won't be making his keynote address at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show until Tuesday, but word is that a big talking point in his speech will be driverless cars. According to CNN Money/Autos, Wagoner is expected to reveal that GM will be testing driverless cars by 2015 and have cars on the road by 2018. What is meant by "on the road" remains to be seen, as buying a real production Tahoe with this technology within ten years seems like a stretch. Still, the success of the DARPA Grand Challenge these past three years in which driverless vehicles pilot themselves through a miles-long course shows that we do have the technology to take our hands off the wheel. GM played its own part in sponsoring the Carnegie Mellon team that has done well in each competition, including the most recent one in which the university's driverless Tahoe called the "Boss" won the whole thing. We've confirmed that CMU's Boss will be on stage with Wagoner as he gives his speech on Tuesday. Thanks to its association with Carnegie Mellon and the DARPA Grand Challenge competitions, GM is definitely on the forefront of developing driverless tech, but promising hands-free driving in ten years is a bold move. We'll just have to wait and see what the Ricker says when he takes the stage on Tuesday.
[Source: CNN Money/Autos]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Karl 8:08AM (1/07/2008)
When I was a teenager, which was over 40 years ago, GM said the same thing, predicting driver less cars, being guided by wires embedded in the streets. They said it would happen within a few years. Those years have come and gone, and I'm still driving my car via my own two hands and feet. I'll be a little over 70 in a decade, and I'll believe it when I see it.
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Don 6:31PM (1/07/2008)
I worked in the designing process at GM and I am now retired. I don't recall GM saying they would have a driverless car in a couple of years. First of all, it doesn't make sense. The technology wasn't there and everyone knew it, but today it makes more sense.
Andrew 9:11AM (1/07/2008)
Karl, just because idle promises got the best of you 40 years ago doesn't mean this technology isn't around the corner. Between GPS, wireless data transfer, and laser/radar/ir recognition, the sky is the limit. DARPA has already proven that. One of the major auto companies needs to get behind the technology early, lay down some patents. It looks like GM may see the light at the end of the tunnel. Quite frankly, someone needs to realize that "good ol' fashioned" v8's and steel bodies aren't going to sell in the world market. I applaud them for being dynamic.
Arch111905 8:24AM (1/07/2008)
horrible idea. whats the point of driving? Just take public transportation
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Whiplash 10:21AM (1/07/2008)
Um.... because public transport sucks? Actually, here in central California, I should say it barely exists.
markf 8:34AM (1/07/2008)
A Cobalt that can drive itself. Yup, I'd trust that with my life. markf
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whofan 8:42AM (1/07/2008)
GM should spend its money on vehicles is knows people will want. Driverless cars? I can see all kinds of law suits when an accident is a system malfuntion.
Only money should be spent is money GM knows will bare fruit.
Remember Roger Smith!
Fuel cells, where are they going?
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Andrew 9:15AM (1/07/2008)
Within 3 years you'll be seeing prototypes that can drive themselves on the interstate. If every car on the interstate was driving itself, the efficiency yielded is huge. Speed would be limited by the amount of cars on the road and the daily atmospheric pressure. I could go on for hours as to why this is beneficial, but I'll let you just find out in 10 years.
bill 10:05AM (1/07/2008)
From what I see daily on public roads we already have driverless vehicles running around.
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Toy Yoda 11:47AM (1/07/2008)
Hehehe... funny!!
Scott 11:22AM (1/07/2008)
Perfect - It completes the package - GM already has BUYERLESS-cars....
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Arch111905 12:10PM (1/07/2008)
hilarious
Lenny 12:14PM (1/07/2008)
I don't have a problem with this technology as long as they make a separate interstate system for these driverless cars because there is no way I will allow my freedom to drive the Interstate system whenever I want, wherever I want without the assistance of some big brother utopian computer. This is autoblog, where are those with a passion for driving? Where is the concern from you guys about preserving our freedoms to drive ourselves if such a system is implemented?
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MikeW 12:24PM (1/07/2008)
Too bad autonomous vehicles won't be legal.
Not going to happen.
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bruno 2:05PM (1/07/2008)
They've been building "soulless" cars for years. Just about got it perfected. Driverless is the obvious next step.
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Iridium 2:30PM (1/07/2008)
Well if you walk around Carnegie Mellon there are already driverless cars (with passengers holding full controls just in case) driving around all the time. Have been for 10 years.
The technology is available but I don't think people want to give up control of thier vehicles. I don't even like cruise control.
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Paul P. 2:39PM (1/07/2008)
I'm sure Ford's Sync will eventually drive the car as well. Unfortunately that means the "blue screen of death" really will become the last thing you see before you die.
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Pete 2:45PM (1/07/2008)
Can't be any worse than most of the idiots on the roads right now!
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Judy Zik 3:11PM (1/07/2008)
Seems like GM is focusing on a lot of pie in the sky announcements these days. Things they may or may not have in a few years. Personally I would not trust a computer driven Aveo. Where is GM's answer to Sync?
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sila332 4:25PM (1/07/2008)
I agree that things cannot continue as they are. Our transportation system is failing. And yet the paradigm shift we're looking for needs to retain the flexible nature of our car based system. The cars are not the problem, they are in fact a great asset, it's the drivers that need to go.
And the development of an automated transport system based primarily on cars may be closer than we think. Rapid and comprehensive changes to transportation infrastructures have powerful historical precedents. The development and rapid establishment of rail networks in the-mid nineteenth century, the essential underpinning of the industrial revolution, was largely complete after fifty years. The containerization of shipping, the foundation of today’s global economy, took barely a quarter century to accomplish. It seems to me that the present state of personal transportation (in urban areas at least) is so inefficient, and the potentials presented by automated cars so great, that we may see its implementation at a pace similar to that of rail. We move much faster today than we did in the nineteenth century, however, and it may take twenty rather than fifty years for the technology to mature.
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