General Motors Acquires Cruise Automation For $1 billion

The automaker is going all in to introduce its driverless cars in the market; the latest acquisition is a simple justification of that.

With all the auto-makers getting into the autonomous cars technology, General Motors does not want to be left behind. According to recent new, the auto-maker is about to become one of the most dominant players in the autonomous cars market since it recently acquired Cruise Automation, an autonomous driving stat-up.

After the acquisition Cruise Automation has decided to open hiring to expand its operations; it has announced job opening on its website which are mostly in San Francisco. These job openings include 13 full time jobs and one intern position and all of these are specifically for engineers.

The statement on the start-up’s website stated that the company’s current team is small and since it moves quickly and is looking to introduce driverless vehicles on the city streets soon, they are looking for ‘smart and ambitious people’ to help the company build the world’s largest fleet of autonomous cars.

The autonomous driving start-up company was founded back in 2013 and all these three years of existence it was in an acquisition deal with General Motors Company. The acquisition of this startup is one of the biggest achievements for the automaker.  Several media reports have stated that this acquisition was worth $1 billion which is not a big amount for a company that’s working on magnitude at which Cruise Automation is working at. With the assistance of this partnership, the automobile organization plans to continue working on driverless car technology.

The achievement deal is likely to close by the end of the second quarter of the current year. The Wall Street Journal reports that the startup is expected to open a regional office in Arizona. The reason for opening the office in the specific region is that the start along with GM will build a large talent pool and will get a chance to run its driverless cars in the hot weather.

Previously, Cruise has worked on the autonomous technology on agricultural tractors and mining equipment and also apparently also has a strong presence in the Silicon Valley which means it is in good terms of a number of technology companies. Since driverless cars are the technology of the future, many technology companies including Google Inc. are working on bringing such vehicles on the city street.

In an effort to increase its presence in the car mobility sector, this is one of the many investments that GM has made in the past few years. Previously, it purchased Lyft for a price of $500 million, which is a car hailing firm. In partnership with the car hailing firm, GM expects to start its very own car sharing projects. Subsequently, the company had already launched its car sharing service by the name of Maven and under Maven’s umbrella; the auto-maker has started its Express Drive Project.

On Thursday, General Motors stock closed at a share price of $30.95 down by almost 1.13%. Since the beginning of the current year, the stock of the automobile organization has fallen by as much as 10%.

Bidness Tech - Google Unveils A Website That Will Keep Track Of Its Autonomous Car Project

Google self-driven cars to soon hit the roads.

Google Inc., the search engine giant has recently launched its website that provides information on the monthly basis regarding any accident that was encountered by the autonomous cars. This is followed by the second accident that happened over the past few days. The new website showcases that the company has now developed a change of feelings. The decision was put forward during a meeting with stakeholders and co-founder Mr. Sergey Brin who believed the accidental details should not be revealed.

According to Mr. Brin, “We don't claim that the cars are going to be perfect. Our goal is to beat human drivers.” He further added, “Nothing can be a perfect vehicle. I just wanted to set that expectation." However, the reports will not comprise of information regarding human drivers as part of the rides in their vehicles.

Google mentioned that since the time the company launched its self-driving venture in FY09, these self-driving cars have dealt with 12 minor accidents that were not because of the vehicles. Google has actively answered all queries regarding its self-driven cars since there have been concerns regarding its performance.

After the reports, the stakeholders have now become a staunch advocate of covering car accidents at a stable pace. The decision to make the process effective was put forward during the annual meeting that took place in Mountain View, CA. along with these reports, the company also wishes to a draft how their autonomous cars react under certain scenarios such as controlled situation, number of vehicles on the streets and how many miles have been covered by the vehicle. The website will also feature the advantages of this futuristic technology and will likely talk about how these cars can minimize the number of deaths on roads caused by regular vehicles.

Acoording to a recent report by the company published in May, Google talked about how their cars react under various circumstances. The report showed that the car has the potential to locate various objects at the same time. Moreover, it stops when any ambulance or cyclist pass by. The company’s agenda at this point of time is to I have a tough time to human drivers and prove that autonomous cars are better.

Along with several other details in the reports, the company has around 23 cars on streets near it headquarter. Among these 9 are being tested on closed tracks. These vehicles are expected to be launched soon but will only travel at a speed of 25 mph.