General Motors CEO Mary Barra unveiled the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle during the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Autonomous cars from General Motors will come sooner than people think, says Mary Barra, the CEO of the Detroit automaker.

Speaking on a conference call with analysts on Friday, Barra said GM is making fast progress as it tests its cars in various cities around the country.

General Motors released quarterly earnings that beat estimates by a wide margin on Friday morning.

Much of the attention on autonomous driving has centered around efforts from Silicon Valley companies, such as Apple, Google and Tesla, but established automakers have been making investments to beef up their own efforts.

"We continue to make very strong progress with Cruise Automation," Barra said referring to the autonomous technology company GM acquired in 2016. She added that GM is running Cruise "as a startup," and giving the team responsibility not only for developing the technology but also strategies for commercializing it.