GM says it will put fleets of self-driving cars in cities in 2019 | Under your tires

GM touts profitable driverless fleets by 2019 General Motors Co. has laid out a plan to not only mass-deploy self-driving cars on public roads in 2019, but to do it profitably — something the automaker’s disruptor competitors in Silicon Valley are struggling to achieve. With a driverless ride-hailing service as its framework, GM is counting on cost reductions, advancements in autonomous technologies and growth of the ride-hailing market to enable a successful self-driving car launch in 2019, GM president Dan Ammann said at an investor event in San Francisco on Thursday. The automaker is using the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt as its autonomous mule, dovetailing Thursday’s autonomous projection with GM’s earlier vow to roll out a profitable electric vehicle platform by 2021.