Generals Motors is on its way to design self-driving cars. It has announced to hire 1,000 engineers and software developers at its research facilities in Ontario near Toronto.
In a press statement Mark Reuss, GM executive vice president of global product development stated, “With this recent expansion, GM Canada will play a prominent role in the evolution towards vehicles that are connected, autonomous, shared and electric.”
The US biggest carmaker knows the province of Ontario is a very crucial auto-hub for Canada with some of the major global automakers having operations in the region. It not only looks at expanding its staff base but focuses on areas such as Autonomous Vehicle Software and Controls Development.
In the press statement, Generals Motors announced about investing $10 million in its Kapuskasing Cold Weather facility so that they can focus their attention on new safety, infotainment, and wireless connection technologies. Mark Reuss further added that they have selected Canada for this expansion because it has a great capacity for innovation and talent. Also because of its ecosystem, it provides an opportunity for startups and innovative suppliers.
The new position will be based at an existing facilities in Oshawa on the shore of Lake Ontario and in the coming time a new automotive software lab will be opened in Markham. In April, a piece of land was bought in the southeastern Toronto by the company to open a base for a new Urban Mobility Campus. It included office space, research and development facilities, and services.
Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, also believes that this establishment by General Motors will create better-paying jobs for people in Canada. Along with this latest investment in Canada, General Motors also has sizeable investments in future technologies which include the billion-dollar acquisitions of Cruise a startup which focuses on developing autonomous vehicles.
Other than GM, self-driving cars are also being developed by tech giants Apple and Google.
