The future is coming and in this case it’s via General Motors Co. and Lyft, Inc. who will begin testing self-driving electric taxis on public roads starting in 2017.

According to The Wall Street Journal who broke the story, the details for the trial of the fleet of self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric taxis is still being worked out,  but “will include customers in a yet-to-be disclosed city.”

Those who are not comfortable with a self-driving car will be given the option to opt out of the pilot program when they hail a ride from the Lyft mobile app.

The Chevrolet Bolt is an all-electric subcompact vehicle developed by General Motors on an updated Gamma II platform shared with the next generation subcompact Chevrolet Sonic, and is scheduled to first be available late this year. Despite being a smaller vehicle, its advantage as a people mover is that its battery array is under the cabin floor, providing more space in both the front and back of the vehicle versus a traditional car of the same size.

General Motors is pitching the car as being an ideal fit for drivers needing space and lower operating costs.

The deal itself follows GM’s decision to invest $500 million in Lyft, Uber, Inc.’s main competitor in the United States, in January this year, with a deal that included a commitment to develop self-driving cars, along with GM supplying Lyft drivers vehicles through rental hubs across the country.

First mover

While the idea of a huge fleet of self-driving cars transporting people everywhere may have only recently moved from the realm of science fiction, it’s science fact in 2016. Those companies that don’t get on board will ultimately miss out.

Google, Inc. and to some extent Tesla Motors, Inc. are already ahead of the game when it comes to self-driving cars, but General Motors not only gets this, they want to be a part of the future as well, which is why they acquired self-driving car company Cruse Automation, Inc. in March for a reported $1 billion.

First mover advantage may be an overstated concept, but when Google gets involved in an industry that is ripe for disruption, everyone else needs to move quickly.

Companies such as Uber and Lyft are starting to change the status quo when it comes to people having to own cars, but the biggest change of all will occur when both those companies no longer have to rely on employing people to drive the cars that provide the service.

No one, even a decent futurist can predict when that will happen, but everyone agrees on one thing: it will happen.

Image credit: Wikipedia/ CC by 2.0