Toronto, Ontario — In this weekly electric and autonomous vehicle report, Subaru unveils concept designs for flying electric vehicles; and the California auto regulators suspend GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle deployment.
Lifting Off
Recently, Subaru brought two concept cars to Japan’s Mobility Show—one of them an electric sports car and the other an electric flying vehicle.
The second design, referred to as the Air Mobility Concept, shows a modern interpretation of a flying car with a traditional cabin outlined in propellers.
Subaru gave little details on the design other than to say that it has aerospace and automotive engineers working on it for future development.
While the design may seem like something from the far-future, Subaru does currently build helicopters under contract for Bell and does claim to have the capacity to at least work on the concept for the future and tease potential designs in the present.
Coming to a Halt
California’s auto regulators said on Tuesday that it has suspended GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permits, saying it had misrepresented information related to the safety of the autonomous technology.
The suspension, which came after a series of accidents involving Cruise vehicles, is a major setback to GM’s self-driving technology unit and to the nascent autonomous vehicle (AV) industry. The suspension was effective immediately.
Cruise’s AVs posed an “an unreasonable risk to public safety,” and “are not safe for the public’s operation” California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said in a statement.
GM has previously insisted Cruise represents a “giant growth opportunity.”
In June, GM CEO Mary Barra reiterated a forecast that Cruise could generate $50 billion a year in annual revenue by 2030, a target the company has not backed away from. The automaker reported on Tuesday that it lost $723 million on Cruise during the third quarter.
The DMV added that Tuesday’s “decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver.”
