Internship at General Motors

Every year, General Motors invites top college students to intern in their Design Center, where the automaker develops its future models. This year, we brought reality series cameras to record all the happenings, and potential careers are on the line.

Internship at General Motors Chris Hanson: Every year, General Motors invites top college students to intern in their Design Center, where behind tight security the automaker develops its future models. This year with reality series cameras rolling and potential careers on the line, seven interns were given the daunting task of designing personal transportation for the year 2030. Matt Zoller: You could be going at 40 miles per hour but because you have a screen, it could look like you’re going a 120. And because of the feedback from the chair, it could look like you’re racing in Le Mans Ryan Patrick Joyce: In the future, we’ve hypothesized that all of our cars will be on a grid system. Every car would have a GPS system which would speak to all the other cars on the road. And when one car stops, the owner knows. Chris Hanson: GM lined up engineers to brief students on technologies that would likely be available in 2030. Futurists were also brought into discuss how society might look in 25 years. John Owens: We learned about new materials, upcoming materials, technologies that are being invented now. I mean it’s limitless. The amount is cool, technological breakthroughs that are happening everyday. Chris Hanson: The students aren’t the only winners. Leaders at GM view this intern program as a reverse mentoring process. Larry Burns: I think we ended up with a lot of a great ideas and it’s going to help the business leaders of General Motors stretch their thinking about how far we need to be pushing innovation into the future. Chris Hanson: Look for the 2030 designs to emerge in a four-part series this month on the Discovery Channel. I’m Chris Hanson.