A GM Car That Drives Itself, Maybe

There are two holy grails in the global car industry today, and their effects on sales are expected to last for several decades. However, each has had a rocky start, particularly for US giants Ford (NYSE: F) and GM (NYSE: GM). One of the two is the rise of electric vehicles. The other is what is known as self-driving cars, or, as they are often called, autonomous vehicles.

Electric cars have had at least some success, but not for American manufacturers. Ford and GM have each come to market with what they believe will be their early best sellers. GM’s score is close to zero in terms of sales. Using its best-selling F-150 full-sized pickup platform, Ford launched the Lightning, an EV version. Ford hoped people who owned gas-powered F-150s would migrate to this electric version. They have not, at all. What should have been America’s first EV success has only sold a few thousand units this year. Some people who have gas-powered F-150s are willing to drive them for years.

EVs have hit the hurdle of short driving ranges, a need for charging stations, and long charging times. Some states do have a large number of charging stations. These do not bedevil self-driving cars. What challenges them is that they are barely self-driving and prone to accidents.

GM’s efforts at autonomous vehicles hit a wall when one of its Cruise self-driving taxis hit a pedestrian in San Francisco. The accident was such a big problem that the head of Cruise resigned. The accident happened last month. According to CNN, “The most serious accident involving Cruise was one on October 2 involving a pedestrian in San Francisco who was critically injured when hit, first by a traditional human-driven car, then by a Cruise driverless car. CNN,” California regulators took away Cruise’s ability to test its cars on public streets.

GM decided not to be tied down by misfortune and will attempt to rescue its primary self-driving effort. According to one report, the company will drop plans to test Cruise vehicles in several cities and apply to restart tests in San Francisco only.

In short, GM appeared ready to walk away from self-driving cars for a while. Instead, it will take a tiny step forward and hope that leads to a stride.