GM is investing $14 million into the development of a new Cruise Automation research and development facility in San Francisco. This investment will be accompanied by the creation of 1,100 new jobs, the company reports.

Autonomous Vehicles

GM’s Cruise Adding 1,100 New Jobs With New R&D Facility In San Francisco

James Ayre

Published

April 15, 2017

In other words, rapid expansion is in the cards — from the sound of it anyway. I guess that the Cruise Automation self-driving tech is getting closer to being market ready.

GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra commented: “Expanding our team at Cruise Automation and linking them with our global engineering talent is another important step in our work to redefine the future of personal mobility. Self-driving technology holds enormous benefits to society in the form of increased safety and access to transportation. Running our autonomous vehicle program as a start-up is giving us the speed we need to continue to stay at the forefront of development of these technologies and the market applications.”

As a reminder here, Cruise/GM is currently testing over 50 self-driving Chevy Bolt EVs in different parts of the country; and plans are for this number to ballon before the end of the year.

The press release provides more: “The new investment will include repurposing an existing facility in San Francisco that will more than double Cruise Automation’s research and development space. The Cruise Automation team plans to move into the new space by the end of the year and hire more than 1,100 new employees over the course of the next 5 years. … California Governor Jerry Brown’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) allocated an $8 million tax credit to GM Cruise for this expansion. The incentive was approved by the California Competes Tax Credit Committee at a meeting in Sacramento.”

In related news, the upcoming Cadillac CT6 will feature a “Super Cruise” feature that allows for semi-autonomous driving on limited-access highways — certainly something that could prove itself a lifesaver for the rather aged demographic that tends to buy new Cadillacs.

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In this article:Chevy Bolt, Cruise, GM

Written By James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.