GM Says You Could Own a Full Self-Driving Vehicle By 2030

General Motors still believes in self-driving cars and thinks they’ll be a big deal in the coming years. GM’s Cruise finally received approval to drive on streets in 2022, and even though it had setbacks and faced recalls, the company is doubling down on its bold ambitions.

This week while speaking at the Sanford Bernstein conference in Detroit, Michigan, General Motors CEO Mary Barra had much to say about self-driving cars and its robotaxi service.

According to Reuters, Barra said the company still believes it’ll have a broad rollout of fully autonomous vehicles by 2030, make upwards of $50 billion in revenue, and could even sell self-driving cars to the public.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because GM made a similar promise in 2021, and now nearly two years later, GM is still confident in its ambitions. GM and Cruise have worked tirelessly to get regulatory approval in select cities and states, have dozens of self-driving cars on the road, and are still gathering data and refining the experience.

During the conference, Barra said she sees a “giant growth opportunity” in GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. However, she took things a step further and suggested the company could sell self-driving cars to the public by the decade’s end.

This is significant for several reasons. For one, it’ll face stiff competition from Tesla and its FSD software, which has its own troubles it still needs to iron out. This also suggests the technology will improve by leaps and bounds in the coming years, scale up, then be available to the general public in the next 6-7 years.

Imagine a world where you could buy a relatively affordable self-driving car from Cruise, use it to and from work, then send the car off to earn money as an autonomous taxi when it isn’t needed, like while you work, relax at home, or sleep. That’s one of many potential options floating around by GM and Tesla.

Then, GM’s Cruise could expand outside the United States and into different divisions like food and goods delivery, all combining to earn $50 billion in revenue by 2030. The CEO also mentioned how affordable $30,000 electric vehicles aren’t profitable yet, even though Chevy has two coming out this year, and briefly mentioned how GM can catch up to its rivals at Tesla. If self-driving cars become available that soon, would you buy one?

via Reuters