Five Questions: GM's New R-and-D Leader, Alan Taub Page 2

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Alan Taub, General Motors head of Research and Development

We spend a lot of resources on improving battery packs, hydrogen storage, and the fuel cells themselves. We go after power electronics and electric motors, since electric vehicles are "electron-source agnostic"--they don't care where the electricity comes from.

We want to make more of our powertrain systems work with renewable fuels, both E85 and biodiesel. We are concentrating on the tank-to-wheels efficiencies, but we also work with energy companies on the wells-to-tanks portion of the equation. Our joint ventures with Coskata and Mascoma fit there, and we're hoping they catalyze the industry (no pun intended).

Second, there's safety: We continue to improve passive safety (how a car protects occupants in a crash), and we're entering the era of active safety. We will have a future, one day, where there are no crashes.

Active safety work includes giving a vehicle 360-degree awareness, using onboard sensors, and communication both between the vehicle and other vehicles, and between the vehicle and the infrastructure it's passing through.

All those sensors can equally apply to a move toward more autonomous driving, which we will use to improve safety. We already have adaptive cruise control and panic braking; at some point, the vehicle will execute other standard processes, like lane changes.

And third, there's dealing with congestion. More and more of the planet's people will live in urban areas over the next decades. And as they do better economically, many of them want cars.

When you combine some degree of vehicle autonomy with dynamic routing in real time, you can grow the number of vehicles on the roads without worsening congestion.

We already know that some people consider driving a distraction from other tasks. How can we make vehicles more autonomous, and begin a changeover from driving to personal mobility--having a machine handle the driving? Or at least some of the worst parts?

What kinds of new products and services will we see in GM cars in the next five years?

Taub: I'm already on record as saying the technology for autonomous driving will be there by 2020. And not just for the highway; that's almost there today.

You can imagine a vehicle "back office" that will determine the optimal route for you, taking you where you want to go in the most fuel-efficient way possible. You could choose to be engaged with the driving, or have a chauffeur driven experience where you can select a work environment, or just relax in a lighted interior with music.

In the next five years, we'll see huge changes in infotainment systems. Voice commands for search requests and e-mail responses; reconfigurable displays that are much more compatible with third-party devices; seamless connectivity; and automatic syncing among the car and all your devices.

In our labs, we have car interiors where the seating is much more like business class on an airplane. Imagine that level of services, in an electrically driven car or one operating on renewable fuels, that you know is using energy in the most efficient way possible.

Smart materials will let us add motion to parts of the car where we can't fit another electric motor, perhaps grab handles or spoilers that are simply on or off. And when they activate, it's utterly quiet. We have intriguing new ways to light the insides of vehicles.

Of course there will be adaptive cruise control, then perhaps lane centering. The vehicle will be able to do more of the driving.

If you were writing this, what would you want buyers to know about R+D at GM?

Taub: From CEO Fritz Henderson on down, everyone knows we're at the beginning of an entire reinvention of the whole "vehicle". GM is committed to being a technology leader in that process.

For 80 years, we did our R+D in Warren, Michigan. Now, we have science labs in Warren; two in California (Malibu and Palo Alto); and others in Shanghai, China; Tel Aviv, Israel; Bangalore, India; Mainz-Kastel, Germany; and Honeoye Falls, New York.

Each of our laboratories collaborates heavily with universities and other entities. Our motto is: We will partner and collaborate with the best researchers, anywhere in the world, who have great ideas. We're looking for great ideas.