June 15, 2017—General Motors said Tuesday it has finished making 130 self-driving Chevrolet Bolt test vehicles, an achievement that the automaker said will help put it at the forefront of the race to develop and deploy autonomous cars, according to USA Today.
CEO and Chairman Mary Barra said GM is the only automaker currently capable of mass-producing self-driving vehicles.
The self-driving version of the Chevrolet Bolt is the second generation of vehicles capable of handling nearly all road situations on their own without driver intervention. They are equipped with the latest array of equipment, including cameras, radar, sensors and other hardware designed and built by GM and its suppliers.
The new version of the self-driving Bolts must still be driven with a person behind the wheel who is alert and ready to take control if necessary.
The automaker had already built about 50 Bolt autonomous vehicles that were retrofitted with the specialized sensors needed to drive themselves. That gives the automaker a total of 180 vehicles it can test and refine.
GM began testing the first generation of its self-driving Bolts last June in Detroit, Scottsdale, Ariz.' and San Francisco. Barra said testing of the new version of the self-driving Bolts will begin soon.
GM began making the second-generation Bolt in January and now has enough vehicles to test and learn from, said Andrew Farah, chief technical officer for the self-driving Bolt. Farah said GM wants to learn from this version of the vehicle before it begins making more of them.
