General Motors president Dan Ammann made an undisclosed visit to Israel this month. He is the highest ranking GM officeholder to visit Israel in recent years. Ammann, who has been GM's president for the past three years, is responsible for its global business activity.
The visit focused on GM's center in Herzliya for the development of advanced technologies. The visit follows General Motors' accelerated activity in automous and electric cars, a large proportion of which is taking place in Israel.
GM is slated to present its strategic plan for the coming years in smart and autonomous vehicles at an analysts' conference this week. The company also intends to begin advanced trials of a fleet of autonomous electric cars on public highways in the US in the coming months. GM is believed to be one of the world's most advanced automakers in this field.
Ammann was accompanied on his visit by a large group of senior executives. GM's Israeli development center has nearly 200 employees, and the company is still recruiting personnel and expanding its activity to new areas: robotics, machine vision, and others.
Auto industry sources also believe that the center is likely to coordinate GM's global R&D activity in artificial intelligence in the coming years. GM is in eighth place on the Fortune 500, with over $140 billion in annual revenue.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on November 28, 2017
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