GM Is Making Autonomous Bolts

Chevy Bolt Concept (Credit: Chevrolet )

GM really needs the new Bolt electric car to be a huge hit. The company’s poured significant resources into its development. Not only that, the automaker’s reputation as an innovator and champion of technology is on the line.

Some are already declaring the Chevy Bolt a grand failure, even though the car hasn’t launched yet. Premature? Yes, but we’ll see what happens once the general public has the chance to buy the thing.

To help sweeten the deal, it seems GM is working to add autonomous drive features to the Bolt. The AP just reported that the electric car is running around the roads in swanky Scottsdale, Arizona, without humans controlling them.

This has been going on for about two weeks. Driving around in Scottsdale in the dead of summer should allow GM to test out how the different sensors hold up in the extreme temperatures.

The AP says that testing in San Francisco has been going on since May 20, and that the automaker is looking to expand to other cities. No doubt it’ll do some cold weather testing in the Great Lakes region during the winter, seeing how the tech handles snow and ice.