GM Invests $ Half Billion In Vehicles You Won't Drive

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
1/4/2016

General Motors announced a huge investment in Lyft today. Lyft is basically a service like Uber. However, Lyft has already started to plan for an autonomous vehicle to come get you rather than a person in their own vehicle. That is where GM's technology comes in. GM is getting a chunk of Lyft and a seat on its board of directors and Lyft gets 2,000 large gym bags stuffed with Benjamins. In addition, GM will be the rental car of choice for those who work at Lyft using a rental car. Apparently, drivers who work at these ride-share services now rent a car in some cases instead of using their own.

 

What we found most interesting was this statement by GM's president Dan Ammann. “We see the future of personal mobility as connected, seamless and autonomous. With GM and Lyft working together, we believe we can successfully implement this vision more rapidly.” If we understand that right, GM sees a future where you don't own your vehicle, or drive it. GM's current strength is in creating vehicles with more power and capability than anyone can practically use, because they are cool. If that changes to vehicles driving us from place to place at the speed limit, the market for 6.2-liter supercharged V8s may be somewhat diminished. It sounds like GM is smart to be hedging its bets. Note to GM - Tell Lyft to loose the Jetta in its adverts.

 

[Chevor]

I'm on the roads all day. I see the majority of people behind the steering wheel with phone in hand, not properly paying attention to the road.

 

I think GM is on to something here.