GM’s Cruise unveils its autonomous shuttle concept, the Origin

GM owned company developing autonomous vehicles, Cruise, has unveiled its new autonomous shuttle concept, the Cruise Origin.

The company believes that this concept study has a potential of creating a different transportation system entirely — one that is safer, better and more affordable.

Having ditched almost all aspects of a traditional car, the new concept is self-driven, all-electric and shared. The Origin has no engine and has no driver. Cruise has has removed equipments supporting the driver such as steering wheel, pedals, rearview mirrors, windshield wipers, and cramped seats. The company is betting on this concept to build a transportation system of the future.

Getting rid of the driver and equipments supporting the driver helped create more real-estate inside the vehicle. The Cruise Origin looks big but in fact, it's no bigger than an average car. It's just more efficient, making full use of the space it takes up on the road. The doors don't hinge outward. They slide open, so bikers are safer. The entry is low to the ground, and three times larger than that of an average car — wide enough to make room for one person to step in while another person steps out. Every seat is extra-legroom and they all face each other, so passengers can have a conversation with each other.

Since Cruise will own the entire experience, from the app to the Origin to customer service, customers will get the same consistent experience, every time. Cruise riders will know what to expect every single time they open our app, hence getting rid of uncertainties that traditional ridesharing apps bring upon.

The Cruise Origin is powered by a brand-new, all-electric platform built by General Motors. It's got what's called redundancy, meaning there are no single points of failure across sensing, compute, networking, or power, because there's no backup human driver. Its multi-layered sensor suite is designed to keep track of multiple people and objects, even if they're far away, in pitch-black, or hidden by rain or fog.

The Origin is modular, which means it's upgradeable and the company won't have to roll out a new fleet each time it builds a better sensor or computer. This means that Cruise can save money and pass these savings on to its customers, while reducing waste.

Currently, Cruise is running fleets of our third-generation vehicles on the roads of San Francisco, operating a rideshare service that any Cruise employee can use, 24/7. Last year alone, it accumulated nearly a million miles as it autonomously drove nearly every road in San Francisco.

Every mile in San Francisco is packed full of rich information. Which means the Origin is learning about how people drive, how to maneuver in unusual circumstances, and how to react to situations that seem impossible to predict. It is being prepared to anticipate things that shouldn't happen, but do.

Cruise's human supervisors provide feedback on how the vehicle is driving. The company even creates 3D simulations of great teaching material, so that it can make every software release better than the last, creating smarter, smoother, safer rides. Already, Cruise self-driving cars handle urban driving, which is notoriously chaotic and unpredictable, exceptionally well. The company is on track to crack the superhuman threshold in urban environments, and expects to be well past that threshold by the time the Cruise Origin enters production.

The Cruise Origin will spend most of its life in motion, working 10 times harder than an average car, day in and day out. It doesn't require a driver and because it's modular, it will have a lifespan of over 1 million miles, six times more than the average car. And since GM has committed to producing millions of electric vehicles, Cruise will build it for roughly half the cost of what a conventional electric SUV costs today.