Thursday, October 22, 2020

Cruising for many bruisings

I see on CNBC that General Motors, best known for building a Chevy Traverse that had the annoying habit of shutting down in traffic while being driven by a friend of ours, is branching out beyond the old unreliable gasoline engines and looking to get into the business of making selling unmanned autonomous vehicles by the end of this year in San Francisco.

Remember, "unmanned" means no one is driving, and autonomous means "no one is driving." 

They call it the Cruise because owning one will cause you to jump up and down on Oprah's sofa.


The Cruise people say they have received permission from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to do away with the human backup drivers from its self-driving cars.

Remember, "human backup drivers" means "the only person controlling the vehicle's acceleration and braking except for some robot who never took driver's ed."

“Before the end of the year, we’ll be sending cars out onto the streets of SF (San Francisco) — without gasoline and without anyone at the wheel,” Cruise CEO Dan Ammann says. “Because safely removing the driver is the true benchmark of a self-driving car, and because burning fossil fuels is no way to build the future of transportation.”


This will make Cruise cars the first privately operated fleet on the road without drivers, which CNBC says is the goal of the company.

They had hoped to get these autocars on the road for testing by 2019, but said they needed "further testing."

If you're the kind of person who would allow a blindfolded person to shoot a gun in your direction, if you would let someone who knows nothing a brain surgeon trepan your noggin, and if you would walk a tightrope that looks a little frayed across Niagara Falls, please report to the nearest Cruise dealer the minute they open.

They have a deal just right for you!



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