To speed up the progress in autonomous driving technology, the American automaker General Motors decided to buy the San Francisco based startup firm, Cruise Automation. It is a fairly new company started in 2013 which specializes in the autonomous vehicle technology.
Cruise Automation used to develop sensors worth $10,000 that could be installed in any vehicle to allow it to drive itself. GM has not revealed the price it paid to buy the company, however sources suggest that it set the automaker back around $1 billion.
GM authorities stated that, by using Cruise Automation’s technology, they could move forward quickly in developing their autonomous vehicles. The autonomous company will work independently but will be headed by the GM’s Autonomous Vehicle Development Team.
The founder of Cruise Automation, Kyle Vogt also expressed his gratitude and stated that the partnership with GM Motors is a great step towards making self-driving cars commercially available in the near future.