[msb-alumni] Honda and GM partner for 'ultimate' challenge: A new autonomous vehicle
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2018 13:33:13 -0400
BlankHonda and GM partner for 'ultimate' challenge: A new autonomous vehicle .
Peter Holley.
General Motors says product will be made for 'global deployment
Cruise Automation, a self-driving-car subsidiary of General Motors, is rushing
to create a new autonomous vehicle with the help of one of the largest names
in the automotive industry. Honda said it will invest $2.75 billion into
Cruise's autonomous vehicle operations over the next 12 years, an infusion that
arrives several months after the Japanese firm SoftBank announced a $2.25
billion investment in the company. Both investments bring the four-year-old
Cruise's
valuation to a whopping $14.6 billion, General Motors said in a news release
Wednesday. Cruise Automation is already building a fleet of autonomous vehicles
that could hit American streets as early as next year. Company officials were
short on details about the new vehicle, but in a statement published on Medium,
Cruise chief executive Kyle Vogt said the massive Japanese automaker will work
jointly with Cruise and GM to develop an "innovative, space-efficient autonomous
vehicle" that "minimizes congestion on crowded city streets. In an interview
Wednesday morning on Cheddar Live, Vogt said Honda brings experience in "space
efficient design. He declined to offer a timeline for the new vehicle's release
and said that his company is "moving as quickly as we possibly can. GM
noted that the vehicle will be manufactured at high volume "for global
deployment. "Shouldn't the car of the future have giant TV screens, a mini bar,
and lay-flat seats? Vogt's statement said. "Maybe it should. We've been quietly
prototyping a groundbreaking new vehicle over the past two years that is
fully released from the constraints of having a driver behind the wheel.
"Building a new vehicle that has an incredible user experience, optimal
operational
parameters, and efficient use of space is the ultimate engineering challenge,"
the statement added. The funding arrives nearly 10 months after GM unveiled
the Cruise AV - a fourth-generation autonomous vehicle based on a Chevy Bolt EV
that lacks a steering wheel, pedals and manual controls that have come
to define the experience of riding inside an automobile for more than a
century.
"Autonomous vehicles are not simply a Silicon Valley-based dream," Zo
Rahim, research manager at the automotive media company Cox Automotive told CNN
Money after Wednesday's announcement. "Current auto manufacturers are primed
to dictate the direction and growth of the future of mass mobility. GM is
already testing second- and third-generation self-driving Cruise AVs on busy
streets in San Francisco and Phoenix with a human engineer in the vehicle. They
rely on cameras, radar and high-precision laser sensors known as lidar
for navigation. The fourth generation of that vehicle will be used in a
ride-sharing program in multiple American cities, where "the vehicles will
travel
on a fixed route controlled by their mapping system," Bloomberg News reported.
The partnership with Cruise is not the first time Honda and GM have teamed
up. The automakers recently began collaborating on electric car battery
technology as part of a multiyear agreement, according to GM. In the company's
news release, Mary Barra, GM's chairman and chief executive, called the latest
partnership with Honda a "logical step" given their joint work on electric
vehicles. "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. In his statement on Medium, Vogt said the
vehicle
produced with Honda is "what comes next. A teaser image produced alongside the
blog post appeared to show a futuristic-looking, black and silver vehicle
that vaguely resembles the front of a bullet train. "We're going to do this
right, and by joining forces with Honda we've found the perfect partner to help
make it happen," Vogt added.
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