GM: Autonomous cars could be for sale in 10 years

GM: Autonomous cars could be for sale in 10 years

GM could be selling fully autonomous cars to consumers in 10 years, Mark Reuss, GMês head of global product development, said at a cybersecurity conference recently. They could be sold to ride-sharing services in some cities in five years.

At the same conference, GM CEO Mary Barra, mindful of the recent Tesla crashes, said the cars first should be tested with human drivers who could take over if necessary, according to the Detroit News. GM plans to debut its hands-free, pedals-free highway driving feature, the Super Cruise, on the Cadillac CT6 next year.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind, who also spoke at the conference, has often expressed optimism about the potential of autonomous driving to save lives.

–Of course we have to do everything we can to make sure new technology does not introduce new safety risks, but we also canêt stand idly by while we wait for the perfect,” Rosekind said, after noting that 35,000 Americans were killed on the road last year.

He said that NHTSA estimates 613,501 lives were saved by auto safety technologies in the past 50 years.