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GM Introduces Cruise AV With No Steering Wheel

Not wanting to take a back seat to Tesla, GM introduces their Cruise AV, which doesn't even have a steering wheel to tempt fallible humans into driving.


(New GM Cruise AV has no steering wheel for humans)

General Motors filed a Safety Petition with the Department of Transportation for its fourth-generation self-driving Cruise AV, the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls.

As far as I know, the first description of an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel is found in The Living Machine, a 1935 story by David H. Keller:

"I want to show you something new in the way of an automobile." "Nothing new about this," laughed Babson, scornfully. "One of our best and most familiar models."

"How about the steering wheel?"

"Where is it?"

"I do not need one. Sit down and make yourself comfortable. Now watch me. We are going into traffic..."

Update 08-Feb-2024: I've found an earlier reference for a first description of an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel from Paradise and Iron by Miles Breuer, published in Amazing Stories Quarterly in 1930:

The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove! Ames tinkered around with something on the instrument board when he got in; and in a few moments we were off.

End update.

Via GM.

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