General Motors Ready To Take On Tesla With New Digital Platform - A Brain For Its Next EVs

General Motors made a lot of internal changes recently to enable a transition to electric vehicles. In a bid to redirect funds for the restructuring, the US auto giant shut down five of its factories and fired 15% of its staff to cut down on costs. The efforts have paid off, it seems, as the company has now announced an all new digital electric platform for the next generation of its electric cars.

The new platform is focused to the production of electric vehicles and as per GM, comes equipped to support any future mods in GM¡¯s electric cars, including those of active safety, infotainment and connectivity.

The digital architecture, which can simply be put as the ¡°brain¡± of the car, will be able to deliver a phenomenal 4.5 terabytes of processing power per hour. GM claims that this is a five fold improvement to its previous generation of electric architecture.

GM Digital Vehicle Platform (Image: General Motors)

Also read: Audi Electric Push May Turn R8 And A8 Into All-Electric Cars From 2025 Onward

What it means for GM

GM is visibly proud of the development. ¡°Our new digital vehicle platform and its eventual successors will underpin all our future innovations across a wide range of technological advancements, including EVs and expanded automated driving,¡± said GM President Mark Reuss in a statement to the press. A rather bold statement to make, though not so much if it is true.

Look at it this way. The new digital electronics platform put GM right into the midst of competition with the likes of Tesla. Just like the Tesla cars, GM makes will now be able to receive over-the-air software updates and upgrade functionality of the vehicles for the drivers. All of this, throughout the entire ownership of these cars. Simply put, your car, or at least its digital features, will never be outdated.

Tesla also came up with its full self-driving computer (FSD) chip recently which has been built from the ground up by the company. CEO Elon Musk even claimed it to be ¡®objectively the best chip in the world¡¯ at the time. Will the GM's platform be a match? Hard to say at this time.

Chevrolet Bolt EV (Image: Reuters)

Also read: Tesla Cuts Waiting Time At Electric Car Charging Station By Limiting Max Charge To 80% Capacity

GM Vehicles

Some reports indicate that General Motors might be bringing its latest platform in the 2020 Cadillac CT5 sedan for the first time ever. Eventually, the company will be rolling out the new platform in all of its electric vehicles by 2023.

The company¡¯s latest electric vehicle, the Chevy ¡°EUV¡± crossover, announced last week does not come with this platform though. The remake of Chevy Bolt, however, will be the first one from the firm to receive over-the-air software updates.