Tracking autonomous cars has brought carmakers and technology companies closer than ever. Microsoft and General Motors, weird bedfellows, though they could have been a decade or two ago, are now partners to put Cruise’s robotaxis on the road.
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a contribution to a $ 2 billion round of investment, which also included funding from GM and Honda, placing Cruise’s total valuation at $ 30 billion. GM acquired Cruise in 2016; Since then, the self-driving research startup has grown from 40 employees to nearly 2,000, according to Financial times.
Microsoft’s involvement gives Cruise a backbone of cloud computing to grow and grow faster; In turn, Cruise offers Microsoft a foray into the standalone car, which is fast becoming the domain of companies that already make your smartphones and much of the TV you love to play. from Microsoft and GM joint press release announcing the news:
To unlock the potential of cloud computing for self-driving vehicles, Cruise will use Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing and edge platform, to market its unique solutions for autonomous autonomous vehicles on a large scale. Microsoft, as Cruise’s preferred cloud provider, will also use the Cruise industry’s in-depth experience to enhance its customer-based product innovation and service carriers around the world through ongoing investments in Azure.
As I found out last week, GM has many electric vehicles coming, together with new interesting initiatives such as BrightDrop, which deals as much in the field of logistics and software-based fleet management as in the manufacture of electric cars. Again, here comes Microsoft, as GM CEO Mary Barra explains:
“Microsoft is an excellent complement to the team as we move into a future world with zero accidents, zero emissions and zero congestion,” said Mary Barra, GM’s president and CEO. “Microsoft will help us accelerate the sale of self-driving electric vehicles and help GM realize even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and create new businesses and services for to stimulate growth. ”
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A year ago, Cruise revealed Origin – its inclination for the autonomous shuttle bus which looks, well, probably like a lot of autonomous shuttle buses, probably in the sense that it is a rounded box with a lot of glass and big wheels pushed to the corners to maximize the interior volume. It certainly looks more conventional than Zoox’s design, but honestly, I don’t care what my faceless and soulless cart of the future looks like – it just takes me where I go relatively efficiently without killing myself or anyone else.
Cruise has been testing vehicles for five years in the form of modified Chevrolet bolts. Over time, those screws broke 2 million test miles in the company’s hometown, San Francisco, in addition to previous tests performed on GM samples in Michigan.
By the end of last year, those trips were made with a driver ready, although Cruise is supposed to be now testing cars without a driver. Unlike Waymo, it doesn’t seem to carry enough passengers yet, as Google’s self-driving startup recently began making in the Phoenix subway area. It may be a while before Bay Area residents have the opportunity to travel to an Origin, although Microsoft will join the effort and could very well speed things up.