Japanese carmaker Honda has joined forces with the General Motors tech startup Cruise to develop autonomous vehicles as the race to market self-driving cars…
Japanese carmaker Honda has joined forces with the General Motors tech startup Cruise to develop autonomous vehicles as the race to market self-driving cars heats up, the companies announced Wednesday.
Honda’s investment promises broader market access for the new cars once they are ready for the public. The Japanese government hopes to showcase self-driving cars when Tokyo hosts the Summer Olympics in 2020.
With a $2.75 billion commitment in equity and shared development costs over 12 years, Honda joins Japanese conglomerate Softbank in backing the GM venture to create a multi-purpose vehicle that can be manufactured in high volume for use worldwide, the US auto giant said.
Major automakers, start-ups and tech firms are racing to develop truly autonomous vehicles, which the industries see as the next frontier in personal mobility.
Honda’s announcement comes on the heels of Toyota’s move in August to invest $500 million in the ride-hailing service Uber to collaborate on a similar venture to mass-produce self-driving vehicles.
«As is becoming increasingly apparent, this is an effort that requires very, very significant resources to pull off and we’re thrilled to have Honda join forces with us,» GM President Dan Ammann said during an investor call.
Ammann said developers were working «as quickly as we can» to deploy the new technology but did not say when this could occur.
«What we’re giving you here is just an early glimpse of what we think the future looks like,» he said.
