Skip to main content

GM to start autonomous vehicle manufacturing and testing in Michigan

Following the signing of the SAVE Act legislation to support autonomous vehicle testing and deployment in Michigan, General Motors is to begin testing autonomous vehicles on public roads. GM also announced it will produce the next generation of its autonomous test vehicles at its Orion Township assembly plant beginning in early 2017. Testing is already underway on GM’s Technical Center campus in Warren, Michigan and will now expand to public roads on the facility’s outskirts. Within the next few months,
December 16, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Following the signing of the SAVE Act legislation to support autonomous vehicle testing and deployment in Michigan, 948 General Motors is to begin testing autonomous vehicles on public roads. GM also announced it will produce the next generation of its autonomous test vehicles at its Orion Township assembly plant beginning in early 2017.

Testing is already underway on GM’s Technical Center campus in Warren, Michigan and will now expand to public roads on the facility’s outskirts. Within the next few months, testing will expand to metro Detroit, which will become GM’s main location for development of autonomous technology in winter climates.

Workers at the Orion Township assembly plant will build test fleet Bolt EVs equipped with fully autonomous technology. The plant currently manufactures the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Sonic. The new equipment will include LiDAR, cameras, sensors and other hardware designed to ensure system safety, leveraging GM’s proven manufacturing quality standards.

The test fleet vehicles will be used by GM engineers for continued testing and validation of GM’s autonomous technology already under way on public roads in San Francisco and Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as part of the Michigan testing fleet.

GM has been developing its development of autonomous vehicle technology since the beginning of 2016.

In January, the company announced the formation of a dedicated autonomous vehicle engineering team and a US$500 million investment in Lyft to develop an integrated network of on-demand autonomous vehicles in the US. In March, the company announced the acquisition of Cruise Automation to provide deep software talent and rapid development expertise to help speed development.

It began testing autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EVs on the public roads in San Francisco and Scottsdale. The company has more than 40 autonomous vehicles testing in the two cities.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • EV manufacturers to focus on range, recharging and inductive charging
    April 7, 2017
    The electric vehicle (EV) market is booming, according to Frost & Sullivan researchers. Approximately 25 new electric vehicle models are likely to be launched later this year with Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model 3 being the most anticipated. The availability of incentives and subsidies in the market, significant investment by original equipment manufacturers, new entrants, and lower battery prices are factors propelling double-digit growth. However, the lack of standardisation in charging technology, absence
  • NZ Bus transitioning to electric powered vehicles
    April 22, 2016
    New Zealand-based infrastructure investment company has announced a US$30m deal with US electric vehicle powertrain manufacturer Wrightspeed to supply its Route 500, which it intends to deploy on its public transport business through NZ Bus. Wrightspeed's Route 500 range-extended powertrain is capable of powering vehicles weighing up to 36,000 pounds, in grades as steep as 40 per cent, and maintains an efficient drive, with an estimated 11.1 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent. The 80kW, fuel agnostic fulc
  • Dynamic charging boosts electric vehicles’ potential
    December 16, 2014
    With an increasing need to use electric vehicles in city centres to reduce pollution, David Crawford looks at various solutions to power delivery. The UN’s September 2014 Climate Summit has added fresh momentum to the drive to increase urban electric vehicle (EV) takeup. It has launched the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative, which wants to see EVs accounting for 30% of all urban travel by 2030, and make cities worldwide more friendly to their use. Encouragingly, the plan is being well supported by commerci
  • Automated transportation track
    August 26, 2014
    An unmissable feature of the ITS World Congress Detroit includes extensive coverage of the full range of issues in vehicle automation which has captured the public imagination like very few other innovations. It is being compared to the Internet in anticipation of the sea-change it will bring to our landscape, and in the way we live our lives. The Automated Transportation Track at this year’s Congress is sponsored by The Transportation Research Board (TRB), the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Inte