Thousands of modified Chevrolet Bolt cars may hit the roads next year, as part of a major deployment by General Motors to test its self-driving system on public roads.

GM, along with ridesharing app Lyft, will test the cars and possibly pick up members of the public, similar to Uber’s self-driving program in Pennsylvania and Arizona, according to a report from Reuters.

The program will supposedly be split between Lyft and GM’s car-sharing service, Maven.

The deployment of thousands of self-driving vehicles on public roads may improve the public’s perception of the technology. It could also boost GM’s standing in the self-driving industry, where it is currently perceived as behind Google’s Waymo, Tesla, and Uber.

GM has not commented on the report, Lyft also declined to comment.

GM has made a few major moves to ensure it does not fall behind in the self-driving race, including the near $1 billion acquisition of Cruise Automation, the $500 million paid for a minority stake in Lyft, and new billion dollar research facilities.

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Even with these major investments, GM has yet to show the same levels of progress and sophistication that its self-driving rivals are capable of. It does, however, have a few dozen Chevrolet Bolt cars on San Francisco roads, which are reaching Level 3 autonomy.

GM has not been as detailed in its plans for the future as Ford and Tesla, who have both said they want to achieve Level 4 autonomy in the next few years. This major deployment of test cars could be a signal that GM wants to remove humans from the driving experience, replacing car ownership with rental and taxi services.

Autonomous cars might be road ready in less than five years, but it will take another decade before the general public are allowed to buy them, according to Ford’s head of research, Ken Washington.

The comment adds to the growing fear that automakers will not sell autonomous vehicles to customers, instead relying on ride-sharing and shuttle services. There are rumors that Ford will use its FordPass service for ride-sharing or launch a new platform soon.

See Also: Industry split on when first commercial self-driving vehicle will be ready

Ford CEO Mark Fields said customers will be able to purchase autonomous cars by 2025, making Washington’s new estimate of 2026 to 2031 rather conservative.

“It’s really hard to guess and predict the pace of the technology,” said Washington at SAE WCX World Congress Experience. “Our current view is the adoption rates will be relatively gradual.”

Still skipping Level 3 autonomy

Ford has already confirmed it will skip Level 3 autonomy, the mid-level between full human and driverless control. That was seen by some as a decision to avoid customers taking control of the vehicle. It will instead shoot for Level 5, which would revoke all human control.

The company stepped up its investment in the self-driving industry last month with the acquisition for Argo AI for $1 billion, to be paid over five years. It looked like a major acquisition of talent from Ford, to keep up with Google, Tesla, and other tech firms.

At the event, Washington insisted that the auto-industry are not behind when it comes to autonomous tech innovation. He also said that tech firms are now looking for auto partnerships, to “bring it home.”