Self-driving cars are slated to hit the Big Apple next year.

GM-owned Cruise Automation plans to launch an autonomous vehicle (AV) test program in New York City in early 2018, becoming the first company to put self-driving cars on the infamously busy streets of Manhattan.

New York's densely trafficked roads and huge number of pedestrians make the city a testing ground filled with "unique challenges" that will be invaluable to train the self-driving system, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told the Wall Street Journal.

The pilot cars, which will be all-electric Chevy Bolts, will also have to contend with challenging driving situations brought about by East Coast weather conditions, which the company doesn't typically face during its tests in its home state of California. Vogt also said the Cruise will open a research facility somewhere in the city, but didn't share any other details.

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SEE ALSO:Self-driving cars still need to earn the public's trust

The pilot program in NYC won't be much different than other autonomous testing currently underway in cities like San Francisco and Phoenix. The Bolts will be operated by safety drivers in a five-square-mile area in lower Manhattan, which the company's engineers are currently mapping to prep for the AVs.

The Chevy Bolt AVs that will be used for the NYC testing program.Credit: cruise automation

Cruise doesn't have plans to use the NYC-based cars to offer rides to the public, like the company aims to do in San Francisco. Cruise executives told the Wall Street Journal, however, that a Cruise ride-hailing service could be implemented “sooner" than people think.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's office also released a statement about Cruise's plans, trumpeting a "partnership" between the company and the government. The release said the New York State DMV and State Police plan to team up with Cruise and parent GM to keep the pilot in step with the state's new autonomous testing regulations, which were announced back in May.

Cruise parent company GM has embarked on multiple ventures related to self-driving development, with a major investment in Lyft focused on AV fleet systems and the development of its own driver assistance tech like Super Cruise. By spearheading the effort to bring self-driving cars to the streets of a major city like NYC, the automaker is expanding its ambitions even further.

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