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General Motors (GM) is developing customized designs for the interior of autonomous vehicles that Mike Abelson, the company's vice president of global strategy, said could be "unrecognizable" from the inside of cars today, according to Reuters.
Abelson said the designs will continually change to meet consumers' evolving expectations, and eventually won't include a steering wheel or pedals as the company moves toward releasing a Level 5 autonomous car. For context, GM plans to deploy autonomous vehicles as part of a ride-hailing service next year.
The designs — along with its in-car marketplace — give GM an avenue to own much of the in-car experience for its autonomous ride-hailing service. The Detroit-based auto giant debuted an infotainment center-based marketplace, which allows users to make dinner reservations and purchase goods from retailers and gas stations, late last year.
The automaker will likely consider including the marketplace in its self-driving car fleet, with the customized designs it's developing, to create the engaging experiences needed to capture the millions of hours that'll be available for media consumption in autonomous cars. This approach could also allow GM to act as a gatekeeper for its in-car ecosystem, enabling it to potentially block out certain rivals like Apple, as it looks to maximize revenue from its self-driving efforts.
Additionally, this opens up a major opportunity for GM to license its designs to other companies. Every company working on autonomous technologies will likely be looking to grab a share of the media and content consumption inside self-driving cars.
However, building an engaging in-car experience will require attracting numerous merchants and media companies as partners, potentially encouraging companies to forgo building their own designs and instead license one from GM. Carmakers will likely only choose to work with GM, though, if it can provide a superior rider experience to anything they could build themselves to help attract riders for their autonomous ride-hailing services.
The self-driving car is no longer a futuristic fantasy. Consumers can already buy vehicles that, within a few years time, will get software updates enabling them to hit the road without the need for a driver.
This autonomous revolution will upend the automotive sector and disrupt huge swaths of the economy, while radically improving energy efficiency and changing the way people approach transport around the world.
Automakers and tech companies are racing to develop the technology that will power self-driving cars in the coming years. That tech is advancing, but leaves observers with a bigger question: will consumers trust driverless car tech, and will they want to use autonomous cars?
Peter Newman, research analyst for Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on self-driving cars that:
- Sizes the current and future self-driving car market, forecasting shipments and projecting installed base.
- Explains the current state of technology, regulation, and consumer perception.
- Analyzes how the development of autonomous cars will impact employment and the economy.
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