General Motors has shared how it’s using AI to make manufacturing improvements and the roadmap for autonomous vehicle development following the company’s decision to combine its defunct Cruise operation with its Super Cruise team.

GM says it’s leveraging AI technology to enhance safety, improve quality, and enable efficiency in its manufacturing facilities. AI and advanced software help GM’s team “minimize ergonomic stressors, enable workplace safety, and enhance quality” in its manufacturing plants.

“Investing in our current and future workforce with better technology helps ensure that our teams have the skills and tools needed as we continue to evolve our manufacturing footprint to meet customer demand,” GM said in a press release. “We’re always looking for ways to grow our manufacturing capabilities and support our teams to make the vehicles our customers love.”

“[O]ne of the things that we did at Waymo was a huge effort on getting safety, getting validation and understanding, all the corner cases of what can go right or wrong,” he said. “GM has that exact same vision… how do we make this thing as safe as possible? How do we make this thing as valuable to our customers as possible? And so that kind of similar view has definitely transferred over.”

GM has a clear incremental roadmap in getting to the “holy grail of a personal autonomous vehicle,” which is influenced by Super Cruise successes, he added.

“We started out as the first hands-free system, and then we introduced lane changes on demand. We did hands-free trailering. We’re doubling the number of miles that we’re driving. We’re doubling the number of customers that we’re expecting to use this in the future. There’s a lot of incremental growth but it’s been very focused on, I would say, two pillars. No. 1 is safety. This has to be as safe as we can possibly make it, and two, unlocking customer value along the way.”

GM introduced Super Cruise in 2017, and it’s now available on more than 20 models from Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC, with more on the way, according to a February press release from GM.

By the end of this year, Super Cruise is slated to reach availability on about 750,000 miles of roads across the U.S. and Canada.

Next is Level 3 autonomy, allowing drivers to take their eyes off the road and “give them that time back,” Rodriguez said.

“That time back is incredibly valuable,” he said. “We’re talking about the average commute time for a median American is about five hours a week… that’s the equivalent of the invention of the washer/dryer, which was a huge deal for our society.”

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Featured image: A GM vehicle shows Super Cruise is engaged via the green steering wheel. (Provided by GM)