GM will push the future of cars, with or without Trump's help

The battle to bring car ride-sharing, electric vehicle support and autonomy to the world will be fought a city at a time. Cities have the local knowledge, they're "the landlords for the environment," said Peter Kosak, GM's executive director of urban mobility programs. Kosak is at South by Southwest in Austin, TX, to convince almost two-dozen U.S. mayors to adopt GM's 1-year-old Maven ride-sharing service. The mayors of 18 cities, a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, come to SXSW to participate in the government track and learn about emerging technologies that might impact their cities. Maven has been pitching them for two years on the concept of cars that can sit in town parking lots, ready for use by anyone who has the Maven app, which allows them to start the car remotely, set climate preferences, unlock it and drive away. The system leverages GM's OnStar, an in-car concierge system that has grown from a crash alert system to something that provides remote start, turn-by-turn-navigation, on-demand diagnostics and more.