Photos of a Chevy Bolt EV equipped with radar on the roof and being driven by the co-founder of an autonomous vehicle startup that General Motors recently acquired seemed like evidence enough that the automaker was testing self-driving car technology in San Francisco.
But on Wednesday, GM wasn’t ready to talk. One spokesperson told Coins2Day in an email, “Unfortunately, we’re not providing any comment on the speculation.”
Today, everything has changed over at Cruise Automation, the autonomous vehicle technology company that GM said it would acquire for more than $1 billion. The company’s website is now openly bragging that it’s testing autonomous technology on the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV in San Francisco. The all-electric car isn’t expected to go into production until October.
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Below a photo of a Chevy Bolt EV, the words “Join the Driverless Revolution” invite prospective employee to the site to apply for a job. The company has posted nearly two dozen positions on its website for a variety of engineering jobs. The startup had about 40 employees when GM announced its acquisition of Cruise Automation in March.
GM’s acquisition of Cruise Automation, which has yet to be finalized, is part of the automaker’s plan to build self-driving cars. In January, GM created an engineering team dedicated to autonomous driving. The team was put together to help accelerate the company’s technical capabilities and create the future direction of GM vehicle programs, according to an internal corporate announcement obtained by Coins2Day at the time. The team, led by Doug Parks, is solely responsible for all critical technologies in the car including electrical design, controls and software, and safety integration, according to GM.
GM partners with Lyft to develop self-driving cars:
GM is pursuing other partnerships too—its tie-up with ride-hailing service Lyft and its new car-sharing company Maven are two examples—that could someday all overlap. GM has, for instance, openly talked about deploying self-driving cars with ride-hailing service Lyft. For now, Cruise Automation isn’t working with Lyft, according to previous interviews with GM spokespeople.