GM’s Cruise will test self-driving cars in New York in 2018

It looks like General Motors is just months away from starting to test autonomous cars in New York City and will be the very first to do so in the city.

According to the New York State Governor’s Office, the company’s self-driving subsidiary Cruise Automation, will begin testing the cars in NYC next year.

The governor’s office announced on Tuesday that the plan is for New York to deploy the cars in a special geofenced area in the city of Manhattan. This would allow for a virtual boundary around the area for them to be tested.

The cars won’t be empty though. Every car will also have an engineer sitting in the driver’s seat with a second person in the passenger seat.

GM Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt stated that the city’s dense population will allow GM to test its software in unusual situations. It will help the company improve the software a lot faster.

“Autonomous vehicles have the potential to save time and save lives, and we are proud to be working with GM and Cruise on the future of this exciting new technology,” said New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo.

GM CEO Mary Barra has previously said that the company’s self-driving cars are making significant process.
The law that allows autonomous vehicle testing will expire on April 1st, 2018.

Disclaimer: We have no position in General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) and have not been compensated for this article.