“When Cruise first started we quickly retrofitted the Chevy Bolt EV with our technology,” Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said. “You’re bolting things on roofs and stripping wires and ripping out interior panels to run wires in the car. A lot of blood, sweat and tears go into those cars and it’s hard to keep them running. We’re on our third generation of the vehicle and this is the real deal.”

“When we look at unlocking those benefits [of self-driving cars], it takes scale,” Vogt said on a press call.That means when GM and Cruise feel their software is ready to operate without a driver, GM can begin producing these cars at scale and deploy them.