Why does General Motors suffer repeated setbacks in the field of autonomous driving?

General Motors' Cruise self-driving unit is abandoning plans to deploy self-driving taxis by the end of this year, the latest sign that automakers and technology companies are struggling to meet the challenges of commercializing autonomous driving.

Automotive News Europe reported in June that Cruise faces regulatory and technological hurdles in achieving its goal of launching self-driving taxis by the end of 2019.

Dan Ammann, CEO of Cruise, said in an interview that although Cruise is stepping up preparations for its self-driving Chevrolet Bolt, it will not be able to verify its performance and safety in time before 2019. At the end of 2017, General Motors set a goal of deploying a large fleet of self-driving taxis in some densely populated cities in the United States in 2019. At that time, Ammann said this could "change the world."

GM's Cruise is the latest company to suffer commercial setbacks in the nascent field of autonomous driving, which has attracted billions of dollars in investment. Google subsidiary Waymo planned to pioneer a driverless ride-hailing service by the end of last year. But by 2019, the vehicles were available only to about 400 test families in suburban Phoenix, and all of Chrysler's minivan fleet was equipped with drivers.

Of course, the consequences of missing the deadline pale in comparison to fatal self-driving crashes, such as the one in which an Uber Technologies Inc test car killed a pedestrian in Arizona in March 2018, and the deaths of at least three Tesla customers while using its Autopilot system.

While Cruise won’t have self-driving taxis ready this year, its CEO says commercial deployment is just around the corner. He said in an interview that there’s “a clear line” that the company will have self-driving cars in San Francisco next year.

To achieve this goal, Cruise is rapidly expanding testing in the city, building out its electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and working with government officials and the community to prepare for its debut.

“We’re moving forward with the next step of infrastructure and technology for a specific reason,” Ammann said. “The Cruise self-driving car is a very valuable thing and will be even more valuable in the future. It’s clear that we’re doing something and it’s just around the corner.”

huge challenge

Cruise's failure to meet its commercialization goals is increasingly clear that self-driving software is a tougher technical challenge than many expected. Earlier this month, Volkswagen Group announced it would invest in and work with Argo AI, Ford Motor's self-driving car subsidiary.

"You look at all kinds of crazy things happening on the road, and it turns out they're not rare, but you have to be able to handle all of them," said Argo aceo Brian Salesky, adding that scenarios where driverless cars can go anywhere are still being explored.

In China, the world's largest auto market and a leader in electric vehicles, doubts remain about whether fully autonomous driving can ever be achieved.

Ammann said the risks of trying to commercialize and iterate on Cruise's technology were too high for safety reasons, as tech companies might otherwise use new software.

“When you’re deploying mission-critical safety systems at scale, the ‘move fast and break things’ mindset certainly doesn’t work,” he said. “The stakes are so high that our first deployment needs to be done right, and we will only deploy when we can demonstrate we will have a net positive impact on road safety.”

Huge investment

Cruise was acquired by General Motors two years ago, which owns 80% of Cruise, and Japanese companies such as SoftBank and Honda Motor invested about $3 billion in it. In the past year, Cruise has received $7.25 billion in capital investment and was valued at $14.6 billion after Honda's investment in October last year.

In May this year, Cruise received another round of financing of US$1.15 billion, bringing the valuation of the business to US$19 billion.

Cruise is also implementing an expansion plan, adding 20 people to its office in Pasadena, California, to develop autonomous driving technology. Previously, GM announced that Cruise plans to hire another 1,000 employees in the future to achieve its goal of launching self-driving taxis by the end of 2019. Currently, Cruise has about 1,500 employees.

Cruise's first deployment will be in a car similar to the Chevrolet Bolt, which the company has been testing. Ammann said there will be a new model in the future. He said engineers from GM, Cruise and Honda have been developing an electric car designed for self-driving and ride-hailing services.

Ammann said he is cautious about using the technology on public roads and is making sure the public is prepared. Any confusion could hamper regulatory and public support.

“Society is expecting these advances to be presented in a different way,” he said in an interview. “The real goal behind this is to gain broad public acceptance of this technology. To gain full acceptance, it is very important that autonomous driving is performed in the right way.”