As General Motors pushes to bring fully driverless cars to market, it raises the question: Will an 8-year-old even need to learn to drive eight years from now?

That query was posed Friday to GM's CEO Mary Barra in Boston at a town hall-style session called "Gear Up: The Future of Transportation."

"She should, because it’s fun," Barra shot back.

Barra, dressed casually, engaged about 200 of the nation's top college students at Harvard University, MIT and Boston University. Other schools across the country including Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech joined by livestream.

Barra fielded questions such as: What was her favorite car to ever drive? (Corvette.) But her purpose was to pique the students' interest in working for GM by painting a future of fully autonomous and electric cars roaming the streets. Those AVs and EVs will ensure zero crashes and zero emissions, she said.

“We need the best minds and the newest generation of thinkers, doers and innovators," said GM spokesman David Barnas. "This generation wants to work and have the opportunity to change the world, and GM can give them that chance.”

One-stop shop

GM is determined to launch AVs in a major urban market in the form of ride-sharing next year. To that end, it has been on a hiring spurt for nearly five years. It has hired 9,000 new people in the past 24 months alone. From five years ago, 40 percent of GM's 67,000 salaried full-time global workers are new.

Its self-driving vehicle unit, GM Cruise, is running neck-and-neck with Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, to be first to bring fully autonomous cars to market. The two companies are considered the leaders in a crowded field, and San Francisco is the proving grounds to refine the technology.

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"We’re the only company working on autonomous that has everything under one roof," Barra said. "But there is very capable competition, and that’s why we have been so aggressive on moving quickly."

Barra, who after her presentation mingled with the student attendees to actively recruit future hires, described GM's steps toward leading in AV and EV development. In the session, she even teased that GM has given a “tiny bit” of thought to producing an electric pickup truck some day. But when pressed, she declined to comment on future product programs.

A new look

Today's world of personal cars driven by humans and a future of AVs will overlap for the foreseeable future, Barra said, making the need to know how to drive still relevant, especially in areas outside of big cities.

"The average age of a vehicle on the road right now is 11 years," said Barra. "And there are places in America where, for some people, owning a car is a part of their livelihood."

But at some point in the distant future, Barra foresees a shift to both ride-sharing and personal ownership of AVs.

In the interim, GM will work with "municipalities and cities" to devise AV routes so that AVs and human-driven vehicle traffic can blend seamlessly.

Expect most urban landscapes to change in appearance to accommodate an AV world, she said. For one thing, there will be less need for parking lots because AVs can continuously run if they operate as taxi-like transportation.

Also the ride-sharing cost to AVs will decline as they proliferate in use. It currently costs $2.50 to $3 a mile to travel in a human-driven ride share. If a driver is removed, the cost can eventually drop to $1 per mile, she said.

New job skills

Technology will also transform the future workforce, Barra said. For example, GM presently uses "co-bots" in its factories. Those are robots that work in tandem with humans to improve efficiency.

"Robots will continue to evolve," Barra told the students. "We’ll use technology where it makes sense from both a financial perspective" and to improve productivity.

When students asked if AVs will eliminate the need for jobs such as professional drivers, Barra said new jobs will arise, requiring different skill sets. For that reason, GM is working to educate young people on evolving technology and the importance of studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics, she said.

“We have to get in front of it with the right education," Barra said. “We can do a lot as an industry and working together with the government and cities to explain how the technology works."

Along the way, she admitted, "Will there be some bumps in the road? Sure, but we can get past that because we’re doing something that is so much better for society."

Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com