General Motors Company GM reported that it will invest more than $100 million for the development of its two assembly plants located in Michigan namely, Orion Township and Brownstown. This investment will be done to upgrade the plants for manufacturing the self-driving vehicle, Cruise AV. The model is a rebranded version of General Motors’ Chevrolet Bolt EV.Starting in 2019, the Cruise AV model will be produced at its Orion Township plant, while the roof modules will be assembled at its Brownstown battery assembly facility. Per management, the team members of these two plants are well prepared to manufacture Cruise AV as they already have experience in producing high-quality battery packs and autonomous test vehicles.Intended to commercialize in 2019, the self-driving model will function without any driver, steering wheel, manual controls or throttle.General Motors Company Price and Consensus General Motors Company Price and Consensus | General Motors Company QuoteEarlier in January, General Motors appealed the Federal government to approve its self-driving Cruise AV car. Under the petition, the company wants to change 16 existing vehicle safety rules to operate its Cruise AV. It also has to seek approval from individual U.S. states to launch the vehicle.Over the last two months, the petition has been under review by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and no decision has been taken yet. However, NHTSA is anticipated to announce its decision by the end of 2018 or in 2019.Price PerformanceOver a year, shares of General Motors outperformed the industry it belongs to. During the period, the company’s stock gained 10.6% in comparison with the industry’s rise of 7.1%.Zacks Rank & Other Key PicksGeneral Motors sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other top-ranked stocks in the auto space are BMW AG BAMXF, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. HMC and Toyota Motor Corporation TM, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.BMW has an expected long-term growth rate of 4.2%. Over a year, shares of the company declined 18.4%.Honda has an expected long-term growth rate of 5.2%. Shares of the company gained 17.2% in the last six months.Toyota has an expected long-term growth rate of 6.1%. Over a year, shares of the company gained 16%.More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.Click here for the 6 trades >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report General Motors Company (GM): Free Stock Analysis Report Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (HMC): Free Stock Analysis Report Toyota Motor Corporation (TM): Free Stock Analysis Report Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BAMXF): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research