Technology
Celebrating 100 Years of Research and Development Innovation
By Matt Tsien
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Throughout history, research and innovation have driven humanity forward in remarkable ways, allowing us to solve some of the world’s most vexing challenges and satisfying human curiosity along the way. The thrill of discovery and innovation is what propels us at General Motors, not just because we want to be “the first” or “the only,” but because we recognize that technology must continue to advance to improve individual lives.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world experienced firsthand the importance of ingenuity and innovation; companies and individuals alike relied on these traits to survive and thrive. While researchers continue to race to develop a vaccine for this deadly virus, brick-and-mortar businesses have discovered how to prosper online, influencers are throwing virtual events attracting millions, and companies like GM are retooling vehicle manufacturing facilities for mask and ventilator production.
Innovating to Change the World: The Robonaut 2 and Machines for the Salk Polio Vaccine
For the past 100 years, GM’s R&D team has played a decisive role in how our company acts with resilience, takes risks and leverages resources to drive meaningful change – even outside of our industry. Take the Centri-Filmer for example. This vaccine purifying machine was developed in the 1950s based on the R&D team’s bearing and balancing expertise. Ultimately, this technology enabled large-scale manufacturing of critical vaccines such as the Salk polio vaccine. In the early 2000s, our researchers worked closely with NASA scientists to develop Robonaut 2 for the International Space Station, as well as the RoboGlove which is capable of being used by our team members in manufacturing facilities.
Transforming Mobility Through Technology and Innovation
Of course, through the years our R&D team has also stayed true to its mission, developing transformative advanced vehicle technologies for our customers. Super Cruise1 gave drivers the ability to experience true hands-free driving on compatible highways. The CarbonPro composite pickup bed provided truck lovers with a compartment featuring unprecedented dent, scratch and corrosion resistance. And OnStar Proactive Alerts delivered customers advanced notice of potential vehicle problems, turning what was an unexpected and serious repair into routine maintenance.
And while we have 100 years of incredible history behind us, GM R&D remains focused preparing for the next century of innovation. We clearly see the path toward an all-electric future for our company and for the industry. Our team’s pioneering work developing a 450-volt silver-zinc battery pack for the 1966 Electrovair II helped pave the way for the Chevrolet Volt, the Chevrolet Bolt EV and soon, the GMC HUMMER EV pickup2 and SUV, the Cadillac LYRIQ, and the Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup truck.
Through electrification, we see a cleaner, more sustainable planet. We see the advancement of artificial intelligence and machine learning leading us to self-driving vehicles. And we see a safer world for all, powered by our ability to deploy our innovations at scale.
GM R&D 100 Year Anniversary Timeline
1920s: The World’s First Lacquer Paint System
R&D developed the first successful Lacquer paint system for cars, cutting production time from 15 days to less than one day. This tremendously reduced manufacturing time for vehicles while also adding greater customization of the automobile.
1929: The First Commercial Room Air Conditioner
R&D had many innovations that made refrigeration commercially practical. As a result, GM's Frigidaire division was able to produce the first room air conditioner small enough for the home, as well as air conditioners for cars and trucks.
1930s: Hydraulic Valve Lifter
R&D developed the first hydraulic valve lifters that were ultimately used on the Cadillac V-16. These have become universally adopted by the automotive industry to increase engine life and overall vehicle quality and performance.
1939 – 1944: The Arsenal of Democracy
While the company manufactured tanks and planes for World War II, R&D developed a number of technologies to support the war effort including: two cycle engines and super fuel for aircrafts, controllable pitch marine propellers used for Navy PT boats, chasers, landing crafts, and DC amplifiers for detection of tiny voltages for use in military surveillance equipment. GM also leveraged a revolutionary metallurgical hardenability process to help develop critical steels to support the war effort.
1952: The First Mechanical Open-Heart Surgery Heart Pump
GM’s research team developed a mechanical heart pump that made the world’s first open-heart surgery possible. The device was ultimately donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
1955: Blood and Vaccine Sterilization
Centri-Filmer for sterilizing blood and vaccines was developed based on R&D’s bearing and balancing expertise. It found wide application in the manufacturing of vaccines, such as the Salk polio vaccine.
1956: Computer Operating System
R&D recognized the potential of digital computers and helped lead the computer revolution in the 1950's when it partnered with North American Aviation to develop the world’s first operating system for automatically controlling workflow, making it the forerunner of all computer operating systems at the time. This operating system was developed for use on IBM’s first production computers.
1963: The First PCV Valve
GM developed the industry’s first vehicle emissions control device, the Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) valve. This breakthrough in reducing hydrocarbon emissions was soon adopted by the rest of the industry.
1964: Electrovair
The Electrovair was developed to test the viability of electric power for passenger cars. The engine and transmission were replaced with electric system components and R&D helped develop a 450-volt silver-zinc battery pack which ultimately allowed for a top speed of 80 mph and a range of 40-80 miles in the 1966 Electrovair II.
1970’s: Vehicle Structural Analysis
R&D helped GM pioneer vehicle structural analysis. This work led to methods used today for for optimization and better ride handling, structural mass and vehicle safety.
1970: The First Use of Unleaded Gasoline
R&D performed critical experiments to demonstrate that unleaded gasoline would eliminate lead poisoning of the catalyst. Ultimately, this led to GM becoming the first automaker to offer cars that run on unleaded gasoline, a major breakthrough in reducing vehicle exhaust emissions.
1972: The New Standard for Frontal Crash Testing
GM’s Hybrid II series of crash-test dummies was such a durable and repeatable assessment tool that the U.S. government made it the standard for all frontal crash testing for compliance with regulations governing restraint systems. R&D developed human injury criteria that led to the development of these safety standards.
1973: The First Air Bags
GM became the first automaker to offer an air cushion restraint system, later known as the air bag, in its vehicles. R&D combined breakthroughs on human injury tolerance and performed critical simulations and experiments to demonstrate the potential effectiveness of airbags.
1974: The First Catalytic Converter
GM introduced the catalytic converter, a technology in the 1960s and the most important step in reducing automotive emissions to-date. R&D played a pivotal role in developing material innovations and catalyst technologies. This research lead to GM R&D becoming one of the first groups to predict the correlation between atmospheric pollution the earth’s surface temperature. All 1975 model year GM cars sold in the U.S. and Canada were equipped with the catalytic converter, as are all cars sold by all competitors today. GM made its technology available to the rest of the industry at no cost.
1984: Magnequench
R&D discovered Magnequench, the world’s first high-strength, rare-earth, permanent magnet material, which is composed of neodymium, iron, and boron. This powerful new material could be made into small lightweight magnets for use in a wide range of motor and sensor applications. GM commercialized the Magnequench material and related production processes in 1986.
1987: The First Solar-Powered Vehicle Race Winner
The Sunraycer was a solar powered race car designed to compete in the world's first solar-powered vehicle competition, the 1,950-mile (3,138-kilometer) World Solar Challenge Race, held in Australia. The engine was created using a brand-new electric motor based on Magnequench permanent magnets developed at R&D, and won the first race in 1987 by a huge margin.
1997: The New Crash-Test Standard (Hybrid III Crash-Test Dummies)
GM’s human-like Hybrid III crash-test dummies were declared the official frontal impact test device for occupant restraint compliance testing by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). R&D developed the injury criteria used for these dummies and the group continues leadership in the space today with virtual, biofidelic models which will be critical to future vehicles.
2002: MR Shock Absorber
GM R&D developed the MR shock absorber, which is a damper filled with magnetorheological (MR) fluid that can change its properties in the presence of a magnet. GM first introduced these in 2002 on the Cadillac STS and has applied it on many Cadillacs and Corvettes. To-date, this feature can be found in many luxury vehicles across numerous brands.
2005: The First Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) Communications for Safety
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GM demonstrated a prototype V2V system that allows equipped vehicles to share information, inform drivers about a variety of driving conditions, and alert them to potential hazards. The system supports advanced safety features such as lane change alert, blind spot detection, forward collision warning with automatic braking, and intersection collision warning - bringing us closer to a Zero Crashes vision.
2010: The First Extended-Range Electric Vehicle to Reach the Market
GM began selling the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV) in North America in 2010. To make this iconic vehicle possible, R&D developed several key innovations in power electronics, battery, control and manufacturing systems, as well as a multi-scale model and design for battery cooling channels.
2010: Electric Networked-Vehicles
At the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, GM introduced the EN-V electric, networked vehicles, the company’s first autonomous shared urban mobility concept designed to address personal transportation of inner cities, business campuses, retirement communities, etc. GM researchers were crucial to the development of the technology found in these vehicles.
2010’s: Accelerating a Zero-Emissions Portfolio
The R&D team developed groundbreaking methods that allow us to better understand customer preferences and gauge the feasibility of implementing future vehicle technologies. With these methods, we are able to evaluate the likelihood of adoption as we transform our zero-emissions vision into a reality.
2010: Robonaut 2
In 2010, GM and NASA used advances in controls, sensors, and vision technology to build a dexterous humanoid robot capable of working safely side-by-side with people. Robonaut 2, also known as R2, is currently deployed on the International Space Station and its technologies have application to space travel, safe manufacturing, and advanced vehicle safety systems.
2011: Vehicle Cybersecurity
GM R&D was instrumental in the creation of the GM Product Cybersecurity organization, the first dedicated vehicle cybersecurity organization in the automotive industry. The Global A Cybersecurity Technical Solution was released in 2016 and includes several security elements designed to mitigate impact to customer safety, security and privacy. In 2019 the Global B Cybersecurity Technical Solution was released with enhanced protections including in-vehicle message authentication (MAC), secure unlock, and improved gateway/firewall capabilities.
2012: New 6-speed FWD transmission Architecture
GM R&D developed new compact, smooth-shifting candidate architectures for conventional and electrified hybrid transmissions. These were used on GM’s 6-speed FWD and 8-speed RWD transmission families.
2013: Elastic Averaging
An industry-first, elastic averaging (EA) is a new part alignment method that delivers accurate, stable, and rattle-free assemblies. EA was first applied on the 2013 Buick Enclave center console trim and Chevy and GMC emblems. Since this “umbrella” patent filing, over 100 EA applications are now in production.
2013: Safety Alert Seat
R&D played a critical role in the development of the GM-patented "Industry First" Safety Alert Seat 3, used with nearly all crash avoidance systems to communicate crash threat direction via left and/or right seat vibration locations. The improved owner satisfaction and higher system usage associated with using seat vibration rather than auditory alerts helps ensure GM customers fully realize feature safety benefits and brings GM closer to a Zero Crashes vision.
2015: Rear Video Camera Mirror
With a high-resolution streaming video, the current Rear Camera Mirror3 (RCM) improves drivers’ field of vision by an estimated 200 percent – roughly three times the field-of-view of a standard rearview mirror. In addition to the increased field of view, the technology eliminates any rear seat, rear pillar or passenger obstructions, allowing the driver an unimpeded view of the lanes behind the vehicle and traditional blind-spots. This industry-first feature utilizes an industry-first, 60 frame-per-second automotive grade camera and industry-first software (RCM virtual view generation).
2015: Proactive Alerts
R&D led the development of the algorithms to enable Proactive Alerts4 for select Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. The alerts cover 12V batteries and starters and help give customers the confidence they can turn unexpected problems into planned maintenance.
2016: Chevrolet Bolt EV
In 2016, GM rolled out its first affordable, long-range all-electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt EV, with 200 miles of range5. R&D developed and manufactured a rechargeable energy storage system, a high-volume, low-cost, high-energy-density battery pack. Its compact cooling system greatly improves the energy efficiency of the battery pack while also reducing manufacturing costs and pricing for the customer. Today, the 2020 Bolt EV produces an impressive 259 miles full charge 5.
2016: Joining Technologies
In an effort to join dissimilar materials for the purpose of lightweighting, new joining technologies have been developed. This started with GM's patented resistance spot welding process and continued with aluminum to steel spot welding – a process previously thought impossible. Following this, ultrasonic welding for battery packs was developed and most recently, remote laser welding, which is used on the C8 Corvette.
2017: Super Cruise
Super Cruise1 is the industry’s first true hands-free driving technology for the highway. Through the development of advanced technologies, such as the industry-first driver monitoring system, the driver is permitted to leave their hands off the steering wheel for a short duration of time to allow the brief handling of other tasks. Super Cruise is preceded by a 1990 hands-free driving vehicle leveraging R&D-developed detection, estimation and control algorithms. The vehicle was successfully demonstrated on Interstate 696 and on some curvy roads at the time.
2018: GMC CarbonPro Bed
The first carbon fiber composite pickup bed which uses a thermoplastic carbon fiber preform to mold the box and deliver best-in-class dent, scratch and corrosion resistance. The CarbonPro bed is currently available on the Sierra Denali 1500 and the Sierra AT4 1500.
2020: New Aluminum Alloy and Die Cast Magnesium for Corvette
GM R&D developed a new aluminum casting alloy and a die cast magnesium beltline reinforcement which are used on the C8 Corvette. The industry first one-piece casting replaces a five-piece reinforcement and the industry first high performance cast HuCrAlloy aluminum alloy, provides an optimized engine mount bracket.