General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra had a message Friday for investors and rivals who see no profitable future in autonomous vehicles: You're wrong.

Barra told attendees at a Sanford Bernstein conference that she sees a "giant growth opportunity" in GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit, and predicted personal self-driving cars would be on the market before the end of the decade.

Barra reiterated a forecast that Cruise could generate $50 billion a year in annual revenue by 2030.

GM currently is losing money on Cruise at the rate of $2 billion a year. Rivals, including Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, have pulled the plug on autonomous vehicle efforts as losses mounted.