GM's assembly line for producing Self-Driving Chevrolet Bolt EV Test cars

; Date: June 14, 2017

Tags: Chevy Bolt »»»» Electric Cars »»»» General Motors »»»» Self-Driving Cars

Yesterday GM released news that a hundred or so Self-Driving Chevy Bolt EV's were being manufactured on an assembly line, and being shipped to test fleets around the USA. They described this as a milestone, as the first self-driving car to be built with mass-production techniques. We've found a video that goes over the assembly line.

This is clearly not a robotized modern assembly line. Instead of an building the cars from scratch, they are attaching parts to a pre-built chassis. It looks like Engineering team members are doing some of the assembly.

The other thing to note is the size of the computing cluster, and that it takes up a significant amount of cargo space. As advanced as their self-driving technology surely is, they still haven't shrunk the equipment down to where it fits into the woodwork.

It looks like the Self-Driving assembly line receives a partially assembled Bolt EV chassis from elsewhere at the Orion Assembly Facility.

Lowering the main instrument cluster into place.

Using a screwdriver to screw something into place.

I think these guys are not regular assembly line workers, but instead Engineers.

Using a regular drill to drill a hole, probably for attaching instrument cluster to top of car.

Attaching the sensor that sits in front of the driver.

Lowering the computing module into place.

Back-side view of the the computing module.

Source: The Wheel Network

* Chevrolet Bolt EV autonomous test vehicles are assembled at General Motors Orion Assembly in Orion Township, Michigan.* Autonomous drive episode 1 - https:...

David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer focusing on the wise use of technology. He is especially interested in clean energy technologies like solar power, wind power, and electric cars. David worked for nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley on software ranging from electronic mail systems, to video streaming, to the Java programming language, and has published several books on Node.js programming and electric vehicles.

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