General Motors announced Monday that is open to working with Google for the development of self-driving car technology.
"I'm not in charge of deciding what we will and won't do, but I'd say we'd certainly be open to having a discussion with them," Jon Lauckner said in an interview at the Detroit auto show.
The Google self-driving car is a technology being developed for autonomous cars, mostly electric cars. Based on the prototype presented by the company last year, the car will not have steering wheels nor pedals. It is scheduled for testing on the San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning this year. Google hopes to get these cars on public roads as early as 2017.
Mentioning that the technology will mostly be used by electric cars, it is not surprising that GM is interested in working with Google. Last week, the American automaker was reportedly planning to launch a $30,000 electric car that can drive 200 miles at full charge by 2017.
GM CEO Mary Barra also talked about integrating driverless technology that can detect pedestrians to some GM cars last fall. She said they plan to offer the technology by 2017, Fortune.com reported.
Lauckner added that a partnership between Google and GM is probable as the company has worked with some of the project engineers during a DARPA challenge in 2007, according to Reuters.
"I'd be completely surprised if Google doesn't have something to offer," Lauckner said.
"We know they have talented people and we know they have capability."
Google has not decided yet if it wants to be a stand-alone automaker or if it would partner with established automakers to sell the technology. Chris Urmson, head of Google's self-driving car project, will be attending the Detroit auto show on Wednesday and is expected to talk about the progress of the project and possible partnerships.
The partnership hint brought GM's shares up by 0.73 percent to $36.10 in pre-market trade of Wednesday.
