Η πορεία προς τα αυτόνομα αυτοκίνητα είναι κάτι παραπάνω από προδιαγεγραμμένη, με τα πρώτα συστήματα να έχουν κάνει ήδη δειλά την εμφάνιση τους, με την βιομηχανία να λέει ότι μέχρι το 2020 θα έχουν μπει για τα καλά στη ζωή μας.
Η General Motors είχε ανακοινώσει ότι μέσω Cadillac ετοιμάζει ένα ημι-αυτόνομο σύστημα οδήγησης το οποίο το έχει ονομάσει Super Cruise και αρχικά ήθελε να το παρουσιάσει φέτος, αλλά μετατέθηκε για την επόμενη χρονιά. Γι’αυτό ο καλύτερος τρόπος για να επιταχύνεις την εξέλιξη τέτοιων συστημάτων είναι η εξαγορά άλλων μικρότερων εταιριών. Αυτό έκανε και η GM, καθώς ανακοίνωσε ότι απορρόφησε την Cruise Automation, μια startup εταιρία τεχνολογίας με έδρα το San Francisco. Η εταιρία θα ανήκει στην αμερικάνικη εταιρία, αλλά θα λειτουργεί ως ένα ανεξάρτητο στοιχείο μέσα στην αυτοκινητοβιομηχανία, και στην ομάδα εξέλιξης αυτόνομων οχημάτων (Autonomous Vehicle Development Team).
H τιμή της εξαγοράς της Cruise δεν ανακοινώθηκε, αλλά σύμφωνα με πληροφορίες ανήλθε πάνω από 1 δις δολάρια, και έρχεται ως συνέχεια με την ανάλογη της Lyft, καθώς και του προγράμματος “κοινόχρηστων” αυτοκινήτων, Maven. Η δουλειά της Cruise στα αυτόνομα οχήματα θα μπορούσε να περιγραφεί ως επισφαλής. Η εταιρεία ιδρύθηκε το 2013 και σύμφωνα με το The Verge, το αρχικό σχέδιο ήταν να παρουσιάσει “ογκώδη και ακριβά πρόσθετα“, που θα τοποθετούνταν σε επιλεγμένα μοντέλα της Audi, δίνοντας τους ημι-αυτόνομες ικανότητες. Έπειτα, αναγνωρίζοντας ότι η πλήρης αυτονομία θα διαδραματίσει μεγαλύτερο ρόλο στο μέλλον, η εταιρεία άλλαξε στόχο και από τα 10.000 δολαρίων πρόσθετα, επικεντρώθηκε στα πλήρως αυτόνομα οχήματα.
[learn_more caption=”Δελτίο Τύπου”]
GM TO ACQUIRE CRUISE AUTOMATION TO ACCELERATE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE DEVELOPMENT
11/03/16 from General Motors
SAN FRANCISCO – General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) announced today it is acquiring Cruise Automation to add Cruise’s deep software talent and rapid development capability to further accelerate GM’s development of autonomous vehicle technology.
“Fully autonomous vehicles can bring our customers enormous benefits in terms of greater convenience, lower cost and improved safety for their daily mobility needs,” said GM President Dan Ammann.
Cruise will operate as an independent unit within GM’s recently formed Autonomous Vehicle Development Team led by Doug Parks, GM vice president of autonomous technology and vehicle execution, and will continue to be based in San Francisco. Founded in 2013, Cruise has moved quickly to develop and test autonomous vehicle technology in San Francisco’s challenging city environment.
“GM’s commitment to autonomous vehicles is inspiring, deliberate, and completely in line with our vision to make transportation safer and more accessible,” said Kyle Vogt, founder of Cruise Automation. “We are excited to be partnering with GM and believe this is a ground-breaking and necessary step toward rapidly commercializing autonomous vehicle technology.”
According to Mark Reuss, GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, “Cruise provides our company with a unique technology advantage that is unmatched in our industry. We intend to invest significantly to further grow the talent base and capabilities already established by the Cruise team.”
The acquisition of Cruise is GM’s latest step toward its goal of redefining the future of personal mobility. Since the beginning of the year, GM has entered into a strategic alliance with ride-sharing company Lyft; formed Maven, its personal mobility brand for car-sharing fleets in many U.S. cities, and established a separate unit for autonomous vehicle development.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter.
General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM, its subsidiaries and joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety, security and information services, can be found at http://www.gm.com.
GM Forward-Looking Statement
In this presentation and in related comments by management, our use of the words “plan”, “anticipate,” “goal,” “expect,” “possible,” “target,” “believe,” “commit”, “intend,” “continue,” “may,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “project,” “appears,” “potential,” “on track,” “designed,” “effect,” “estimate,” “evaluate,” “forecast,” “initiative,” “objective,” “outlook,” “priorities,” “pursue,” “seek,” “will,” “when,” or the negative of any of those words or similar expressions is intended to identify forward-looking statements that represent our current judgment about possible future events. We believe these judgments are reasonable, but these statements are not guarantees of any events or financial results, and our actual results may differ materially due to a variety of important factors. Among other items, such factors may include: our ability to realize production efficiencies and to achieve reductions in costs; our ability to restructure our operations in various countries; our ability to maintain quality control over our vehicles and avoid material vehicle recalls and the cost and effect on our reputation of product recalls; our ability to maintain adequate financing sources, including as required to fund new and improved products and services and investments in new technology; our ability to realize successful vehicle applications of new technology; our ability to deliver new products, services and customer experiences; volatility in the price of oil; the ability of our suppliers to timely deliver parts, components and systems; the availability of wholesale and retail financing in markets in which we operate to support the sale of our vehicles; the success of our full-size pick-up trucks and SUVs; the results of our joint ventures, which we cannot operate solely for our benefit and over which we may limited control; changes in economic conditions, commodity prices, housing prices, foreign currency exchange rates or political stability in the markets in which we operate; changes in laws, regulations and policies or other activities of governmental authorities or stricter or novel interpretations and consequent enforcement of existing requirements; significant changes in the economic, political and regulatory environment and market conditions in China; costs and risks associated with litigation and government investigations including those related to our various recalls and risks, consequences and costs associated with failure to comply with the deferred prosecution agreement; increases in our pension expense or projected pension contributions; and our ability to manage risks related to security breaches and other disruptions to our vehicles, information technology networks and systems. GM’s most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q provide information about these and other factors, which we may revise or supplement in future reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
[/learn_more]