GM News: General Motors' Cruise Gets A $2.75 Billion Investment From Honda

[William Maley]

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General Motors' self-driving unit, Cruise got a huge boost today from Honda. Today at a press conference, the two companies announced a new deal where Honda will invest $2.75 billion ($750 million upfront for a 5.7 percent stake and the remainder to be invested over the next 12 years) and will work together on developing a purpose-built self-driving vehicle.

Speaking at GM's technical center in Warren, MI, CEO Mary Barra said Honda would provide "additional engineering, design, and technology expertise" and help assist Cruise's “global reach and the ability to deploy at-scale.”

“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,” said Barra in a statement.

Honda's investment comes five months after Japanese holding conglomerate SoftBank invested $2.25 billion into the unit.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required), General Motors

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Honda Joins with Cruise and General Motors to Build New Autonomous Vehicle

• Honda investment of $750 million values Cruise at $14.6 billion

SAN FRANCISCO — Cruise and General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) announced today that they have joined forces with Honda (TYO: 7267) to pursue the shared goal of transforming mobility through the large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicle technology.

Honda will work jointly with Cruise and General Motors to fund and develop a purpose-built autonomous vehicle for Cruise that can serve a wide variety of use cases and be manufactured at high volume for global deployment. In addition, Cruise, General Motors and Honda will explore global opportunities for commercial deployment of the Cruise network.

Honda will contribute approximately $2 billion over 12 years to these initiatives, which, together with a $750 million equity investment in Cruise, brings its total commitment to the project to $2.75 billion.

In addition to the recently announced SoftBank investments, this transaction brings the post-money valuation of Cruise to $14.6 billion.

“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,” said General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “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.”

“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,” said Honda Executive Vice President and Representative Director COO Seiji Kuraishi. “We will complement their strengths through our expertise in space efficiency and design to develop the most desirable and effective shared autonomous vehicle.”

“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,” said Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt. “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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[David]

The amount of money being invested into autonomous driving really leads me to think we will have some revolutionary changes in personal transportation in the near future. The next 10 years should be exciting.

[ccap41]

I don't know if "autonomous driving vehicles" and "exciting" are the right combination of words as an enthusiast. 

[riviera74]

The biggest demand for autonomous vehicles will probably be fleets, especially taxi fleets.  Uber and Lyft may be interested since they will not have to pay ANY drivers this time.

[balthazar]

Hmmm...

Edited October 4, 2018 by balthazar

[daves87rs]

Well, with all the crazy drivers on the road.....

[David]

19 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I don't know if "autonomous driving vehicles" and "exciting" are the right combination of words as an enthusiast. 

They actually do go together when you think of it in the terms of how many IDIOTS are out there driving scared and should have never been given a drivers license. 

Driving is a privilege earned and for the rest that really do not care about driving, let them have these autonomous auto's, stay in the right lane and out of my way on the left.

Anything that reduces the morons camping in the far left lane going 20 under the posted speed limit is a blessing. Especially the stupid slow Prius drivers.

[ccap41]

15 minutes ago, dfelt said:

They actually do go together when you think of it in the terms of how many IDIOTS are out there driving scared and should have never been given a drivers license. 

Driving is a privilege earned and for the rest that really do not care about driving, let them have these autonomous auto's, stay in the right lane and out of my way on the left.

Anything that reduces the morons camping in the far left lane going 20 under the posted speed limit is a blessing. Especially the stupid slow Prius drivers.

1. Autonomous driving cars won't magically make people not scared to be behind the wheel. 

2. This also won't help those driver who choose to stay in the left lane, move out of the left lane. 

Maybe you're assuming 100% autonomous vehicles where you just put in an address at your house and you can fall asleep behind the wheel before it even gets out of the driveway? I don't see that kind of technology being widespread in ten years or less. 

[David]

14 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

1. Autonomous driving cars won't magically make people not scared to be behind the wheel. 

2. This also won't help those driver who choose to stay in the left lane, move out of the left lane. 

Maybe you're assuming 100% autonomous vehicles where you just put in an address at your house and you can fall asleep behind the wheel before it even gets out of the driveway? I don't see that kind of technology being widespread in ten years or less. 

I am being very optimistic as I do hear from all types but especially those that are on the bus commuting in how they would love to not have to drive, just tell their auto where to go and not even think. So I am hopeful for those that do not want to drive but have to will grab at the ability to reduce their poor driving on the public roads.

[balthazar]

15 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I don't see that kind of technology being widespread in fifty years or less. 

FIFY

[ccap41]

22 minutes ago, dfelt said:

I am being very optimistic as I do hear from all types but especially those that are on the bus commuting in how they would love to not have to drive, just tell their auto where to go and not even think. So I am hopeful for those that do not want to drive but have to will grab at the ability to reduce their poor driving on the public roads.

People riding the bus want to instead use their vehicle? 

[David]

7 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

People riding the bus want to instead use their vehicle? 

People riding the bus for work want an autonomous auto for errands before and after work. I hear plenty of people would rather not have to think about driving, just live their life doing what they like.

[ccap41]

52 minutes ago, dfelt said:

People riding the bus for work want an autonomous auto for errands before and after work. I hear plenty of people would rather not have to think about driving, just live their life doing what they like.

Man, you must live around quite a few hippies.. Oh. You do live in Seattle. Makes sense. 

[David]

52 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Man, you must live around quite a few hippies.. Oh. You do live in Seattle. Makes sense. 

Yes, yes I do!  PNW = Tree Huggin, Weed Smokin, Make Love, Not War, Contemplate the Universal big questions!

[Robert Hall]

Buses seem like such an anachronistic form of transport, but they do seem to thrive in some metro areas.  Last time I rode a bus with any frequency was over 20 years ago, in Ann Arbor, MI...I used the U of Michigan campus bus service to shuttle between the north and central campuses all the time.   In my work life, I've pretty much always driven (usually an SUV).  I do like rail...when I lived in Denver I used the light rail often to go downtown from my suburban neighborhood. 

[David]

48 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Buses seem like such an anachronistic form of transport, but they do seem to thrive in some metro areas.  Last time I rode a bus with any frequency was over 20 years ago, in Ann Arbor, MI...I used the U of Michigan campus bus service to shuttle between the north and central campuses all the time.   In my work life, I've pretty much always driven (usually an SUV).  I do like rail...when I lived in Denver I used the light rail often to go downtown from my suburban neighborhood. 

Greater Seattle area during the morning from 5am to 9a, and from 2:24pm to 7pm you can get an express bus into / out of Seattle every 5 min. Makes it really nice to get around on the bus system. Course they are building a crazy overpriced lite rail too so the next 5 years will be interesting to see the options we get for mass transit. No road expansion, money is all going into the buses and lite rail.