General Motors and Honda have joined forces to develop an autonomous vehicle for Cruise that will be useable in a variety of applications and suitable for manufacturing at high volume for global deployment.
The three companies will also explore global opportunities for commercial deployment of the Cruise network.
Honda will contribute approximately US$2bn over 12 years to these initiatives, which, together with a US$750m equity investment in Cruise, raises its total investment in the project to US$2.75bn.
“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. 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 General Motors chairman and CEO Mary Barra.
“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,” added Honda executive VP and 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.”
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt commented, “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.”
More details on the partnership can be found here.
