- See the objectives of my team
are to create a path for leadership
for electrification vehicles
and for autonomous vehicles.
And to create that path, we
need technical development
and technical innovation.
We need to integrate that technology
with the more traditional
vehicle technology.
And when we need to
modify one or the other
to make those work, we
obviously do that and
in reality, create
exciting customer-focused
leading-edge products that
will help GM transform
from the more traditional model
that most people associate
the automotive industry with
to where we think the product
and the industry is going.
As part of that innovation,
we are partnering differently
than we have in the past.
So for instance we
acquired a company called
Cruise Automation about 18 months ago and
we're using, it's a start-up in the
San Francisco area.
We're funding that and enabling it to
help us transform.
There's several factors
driving this strategy.
I would say there's competitive pressures.
I would say there's regulatory pressures,
although those tend to change
at least in North America depending on
the political climate.
But one of the things
I'm really excited about
is recently, and we've
talked about this internally
for awhile but now we're
startin' to go public
where Mary and Dan and Mark, Mary Bara,
Dan Ammann and Mark
Reuss are talking about
the way we see the future.
The way General Motors sees the future.
We talk about zero crashes.
We talk about zero emissions.
We talk about zero congestion.
You may say, wait a minute, that's kinda
way out there.
Really, zero crashes, zero emissions?
But what I love about it
is it's a simple vision
and it's kind of a crystallizing vision,
'cause if you see the world like that,
and when that's gonna
happen we're not sure,
how fast we're not sure.
But if that's the way we see the world,
then that's where we're
driving the business.
And so you start to invest in things that
maybe don't have a short term return
because they support that
part of the business.
And you start to look at
technology that enables
those things and you
start to develop business
models that enable those things.
I think one of the big barriers is price.
Until we're able to make
money on electric vehicles
at the same price as we
sell gas-powered vehicles,
I think that will become a barrier.
And so we're working very
hard on the cost side of that.
Because once we get past that,
I think people will
love electric vehicles.
Along with pricing cost is range.
You can get a lower cost,
lower priced vehicle
but it may have less range than
the customer's used to.
People are very used to 300, 400, maybe
even 500 miles on a tank of gas.
While probably they're gonna expect to
buy a car for the same price
for about the same range,
number one, and then
number two they're gonna
have to fill it up.
So the charging infrastructure and the way
we charge the products
I think is another big
barrier.
And I think there's a
lot to be done there and
I'm not sure General
Motors is gonna do that
on it's own.
But I think it's key to
enabling the transition
to electric vehicles.
We are in an electric vehicle space.
We are creating, we've
done several vehicles.
We did the original EV1 some years ago,
before anybody was ready for it.
We did the Volt Gen 1,
we've done a Volt Gen 2,
we actually did the
Spark electric vehicle.
We've now done the Bolt and we're
very proud of the Bolt.
For under 30 thousand
dollars you can get a car
that goes 238 miles.
Terrific little car.
It's selling quite well.
We're very proud of that.
What we started to announce is platforms
of multiple entries of electric vehicles.
Not just one car, but CUVs, SUVs,
platforms of vehicles for
a much wider offering.
You're gonna start to see
that in really the next
three, four, five, six years.
That's really gonna start to hit.
The other area which might even happen
potentially quicker than electric vehicle
significant adoption is what
I would call autonomous,
and specifically in the ride share space.
So in the major cities, and it's part of
reducing congestion, reducing
emissions in the cities
and providing mobility.
It's kind of a terrific solution in the
middle of that space.
It may not be the best
or only but at least
for now we see it as a terrific solution
where we can provide
mobility at a very low cost
while creating zero emissions.
Having a dramatic
improvement on the safety
of these vehicles.
I believe 94% of all crashes
we see are human-related.
Sensors don't get tired
and don't get distracted.
Sensors don't check their cell phones,
and all of these things that
we as humans tend to do.
So when you think about
autonomous ride-share
it kind of clicks all three
of our major objectives.
And frankly I think it's
sooner than people think.
Everyone knows about Ubers and Lyfts.
I took a Lyft here this morning.
It's a great thing that
came out of several other
technologies and the
business model was created.
I think that that model
probably won't stay the same
and could be disrupted.
I think autonomous ride
share is one of the things
that could disrupt it.
Maybe from a customer
standpoint it's the same
experience or mobility solution,
but the way it's done is a lot different.
