The future of personal mobility for GM is in a partnership with SoftBankwhich is committed to creating safe autonomous vehicles.
It’s easy enough for an automaker to convince itself that autonomous driving and investing in the future is important, but not as easy to convince outside investors. This is certainly the case when the conversation turns to the amount of money being invested that comes out to nearly $2.25 billion that will be invested in one company.
That’s the amount that SoftBank has committed to GM through its Vision Fund to go toward the Cruise Automation, which is the GM subsidiary that’s focused on making autonomous vehicles that will be offered in the future.
This new investment will allow the SoftBank Vision Fund team to have a nearly twenty percent stake in the GM Cruise Automation project. This tech investment firm is based in Tokyo but chose GM as the partner desired to make this big investment in the program being put together by GM to allow autonomous driving. this partnership has a few contingencies to it that must be met in order to make sure the progress continues to move forward.
Here’s What GM Must Do
The deal between GM and SoftBank Vision Fund requires GM to commit $1.1 billion of its own money to the Cruise Automation program. This isn’t a difficult item to check off at all as GM had already planned to invest that much or more money with $500 million already funneled into the subsidiary this year. This signals the first part of the investment to take place which is $900 million with the rest being offered when the vehicles are ready for commercial deployment to the market.
After studying the approach by GM to the Cruise Automation program of fully integrated hardware and software that stacks together perfectly, SoftBank saw that GM offered a unique competitive advantage for the autonomous technology of the future. This approach has allowed GM to make significant progress in offering completely automated driving while reducing fatalities, emissions, and congestion in the process. This new investment will easily help the program of the GM Cruise Automation become a reality for the future that will ensure the program is a success and it allows us to enjoy the benefits of autonomous driving on the road.
When will the GM Cruise Automation program be offered for commercial deployment? That date is still yet to be realized, but with additional money to invest into the program, it should be much easier for GM to research and develop the program that will ensure cars are offered on the market that can allow us to have the benefits of autonomous driving on a daily basis. Look forward to GM becoming the first company to bring autonomous vehicles to the market on a large scale with this investment. Of course, other companies might be ready to close on their own investment deals as well.
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