Honda are spending $2.8bn on a self-driving car project with GM
General Motors, Cruise (GM's autonomous divison) and Honda announced the deal enthusiastically.
Honda has announced that it will be investing $2.8 billion in the autonomous vehicle project currently under development by Cruise, the self-driving tech arm of General Motors.
Details on the project are scarce at the moment. Cruise has been testing a vast array of autonomous technology recently, and all we know about the project moving forward is that it aims to build a "purpose-built autonomous vehicle... that can serve a wide variety of use cases and be manufactured at high volume for global deployment".
The newly formed threesome will also be seeking ways to make Cruise into a global brand at the forefront of new self-driving technology. The ambitious words, big names and enormous numbers being associated with this project signal that the might of GM, and now Honda, has very big hopes for Cruise.
Honda's investment will be split into two parts: a $2 billion contribution to be spread over twelve years and a $750 million equity investment directly into Cruise. With Honda's additional funds secured, Cruise is now reportedly worth $14.6bn.
GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra spoke excitedly about the major step forward. "This is the logical next step in General Motors and Honda’s relationship, given our joint work on electric vehicles, and our close integration with Cruise," she said.
“Together, we can provide Cruise with the world’s best design, engineering and manufacturing expertise, and global reach to establish them as the leader in autonomous vehicle technology – while they move to deploy self-driving vehicles at scale.”
Representing Honda, Executive Vice President and Representative Director COO Seiji Kuraishi said: "Honda chose to collaborate with Cruise and General Motors based on their leadership in autonomous and electric vehicle technology and our shared vision of a zero-emissions and zero-collision world."
He continued: "We will complement their strengths through our expertise in space efficiency and design to develop the most desirable and effective shared autonomous vehicle.”
The voice of Cruise, the smaller company with the big future at the very heart of the project, was deployed by CEO Kyle Vogt. He said: "With the backing of General Motors, SoftBank and now Honda, Cruise is deeply resourced to accomplish our mission to safely deploy autonomous technology across the globe.
“The Honda partnership paves the way for massive scale by bringing a beautiful, efficient, and purpose-built vehicle to our network of shared autonomous vehicles.”
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Comments (11)
We're getting Gmondas!
YES!!
I am spending my money on a self driving project as well. Can't decide on the name yet possibly Jeeves or Taxi
I've probably got a few billion lying around to help you out
Yes all i need is a yellow pages and a phone. Then all I do is call either one of the choices to drive me to my destination.🚕
I hope thy won’t make their self driving cars as ugly as theses ‚Vision‘ concepts
Only time will tell
Honda wants a part of it all.
Fingers in pies.
remember when both, independently, worked on hydrogen fuel cells? what happened to that
Probably bogged down by costs