[ChiragM]

Honda is collaborating with General Motors (GM) and investing $750 million in self-driving car start-up Cruise. The company plans to invest an additional $2 billion over the next 12 years to develop an autonomous car based on Cruise's software. With this investment, Cruise has three major shareholders - General Motors, Softbank, and Honda. General Motors will continue to remain the majority shareholder.



In 2015, Honda announced that it intended to build a partial self-driving car by 2020. In 2017, the company announced that it planned to build cars with level 4 self-driving capability by 2025 and also released a video showcasing freeway-only autonomous capabilities. Level 4 autonomy is awarded to cars that have fully self-driving capabilities, but only in certain locations and weather conditions.

Honda has found itself lagging in the race to build a self-driving car. It will be hoping that the tie-up with Cruise will help it accelerate its programme and allow it to launch a level 4 self-driving car earlier.

Cruise's main rival Waymo has ordered Chrysler Pacifica minivans. It is also working with Jaguar to build up to 20,000 self-driving I-Pace cars.

Cruise currently modifies Chevrolet Bolt cars to accommodate self-driving capabilities. On the other hand, the Honda vehicle will be built from scratch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSAg6bzlf1Q

Link to the Team-BHP News

[GTO]

That's quite a heavy commitment from a company that has always prided itself on its independence. In the era of mega-mergers (1980s through the 2000s), Honda & BMW fought fiercely to maintain their independence.

But the cost of tomorrow's technology is too high and Honda is no longer a technological leader like it once was. Collaboration is the best way forward . That's why, in the last 2 - 3 years, we've heard of a lot of partnerships (instead of mergers). The best example is perhaps Maruti-Toyota partnering up.

It's one thing to invest in Vtec or turbo engines, but entirely another to bet the house on autonomous car tech.

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Honda has found itself lagging in the race to build a self-driving car. It will be hoping that the tie-up with Cruise will help it accelerate its programme and allow it to launch a level 4 self-driving car earlier.

Honda is still small compared to the likes of say, Toyota. When you have a relatively limited budget, where do you spend? EVs vs fuel cells vs autonomous tech vs car sharing vs a million other options? On the other hand, giants like Toyota & Mercedes can afford to invest in everything. Smaller car companies will come to these giants like bees to a hive. I expect a lot more collaborations coming up.

[GTO]

Now you know why! Consumer Reports (a publication I'd trust blindly) rates GM / Cadillac's auto pilot as the no.1. Much better than even that of Tesla or Volvo.

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