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GM recently announced it is acquiring Cruise Automation, a San Francisco startup focused on developing driverless cars, according to Wired magazine. It indicates the automaker is looking beyond simply adding autonomous features toward the day when it builds fully autonomous robo-rides and deploys them in a ride sharing network. No human driving, no car ownership.
The acquisition is the latest step in a plan GM started in January when it invested $500 million in Lyft and announced a joint venture to develop a network of autonomous vehicles. "We’re being pretty clear that we see the fully driverless car particularly in an on-demand network," said GM President Dan Ammann.
The automaker has been developing autonomous technology since 2007, when it collaborated with Carnegie Mellon in the Darpa Grand Challenge robo-car competition. It’s planning to deploy a fleet of self-driving Chevy Volts at its technical center campus outside Detroit. And next year it plans to offer Super Cruise, which will let some Cadillac models handle highway driving much like Tesla’s Autopilot does with the Model S and X.
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But compared to full autonomy — the ability to handle any situation without relying on human intervention or decision-making — something like Super Cruise is about as complicated as putting a nut on a bolt.
So that’s where the deal with Cruise could help. The small company started out making a $10,000 kit that could turn current cars into autonomous ones. But about 18 months ago, says founder Kyle Vogt, it shifted its focus to the more complex problem of developing the software algorithms that could make full autonomy possible. It hasn’t publicized its progress, but Ammann says GM is "impressed by the speed with which [Cruise is] solving some of the most challenging technical issues around autonomous vehicle technology."
Under the deal, Cruise will remain its own operation and stay in San Francisco. Ammann wouldn’t disclose how much GM paid for the startup, but says GM plans a significant investment to build up the team and its capabilities.
For more of the Wired story: www.wired.com
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