General Motors will keep its business units working on self-driving vehicles and car-sharing despite analysts suggesting they could be spun off and valued at as much as $30 billion, according to a top executive.
The automaker is moving faster than its foes because it has the capability to engineer, develop and manufacture vehicles using advanced software under one roof, President Dan Ammann said Tuesday. GM shares have been rising as analysts led by Deutsche Bank’s Rod Lache have issued bullish reports about its burgeoning mobility businesses.
“All of our focus right now is on moving as fast as we can to get to commercial deployment of this technology in the safest way possible,” Ammann said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We believe the best way to do that is having all the capability under one roof.”
GM, which acquired Cruise Automation last year to develop autonomous vehicles, will begin deploying self-driving cars in New York City in early 2018, expanding a test fleet that’s already been on the roads in San Francisco and Scottsdale, Ariz. The automaker’s car-sharing business Maven also has been spreading to more cities and renting out vehicles to Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. drivers.
Ammann said GM envisions controlling and operating its own self-driving car-sharing service and said this could be significantly more profitable than its existing business.
