GM Wants 1 Million Self Driving Cars On The Road Within The Next Decade

GM’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary, Cruise, announced Wednesday that it wants 1 million self-driving cars on the road by 2030.

Cruise CEO Dan Ammann unveiled the new plan during a General Motors investor event by showing illustrations of the “exponential Cruise fleet ramp,” CNBC reported.

“We expect to scale the business rapidly,” Ammann said, according to CNBC. The CEO did not elaborate on the 2030 deadline, but he said “that’s where the company believes it can be,” according to CNBC.

Federal and state officials remain in the early stages of testing and approving autonomous cars, which prove to be a hurdle for Cruise.

The company has been testing self-driving cars in San Francisco for several years, and it plans to introduce its autonomous taxi car to customers as early as 2022, pending state approval, according to CNBC. California granted Cruise its fifth of six permits it will need to commercialize such a ride-hailing service.

A Google subsidiary, Waymo, received similar permits, but it will require cars to have back-up drivers, according to CNBC.

Cruise plans to send its product to markets worldwide, according to CNBC. The company has already agreed with authorities in the United Arab Emirates to be the exclusive self-driving taxi producer for the country.

It will cost Cruise approximately $5 a mile to operate ride-hailing taxis, though the company expects that figure to fall to roughly $1.50 a mile once the vehicles are fully driverless, CNBC reported.