Welcome to This Week in Driverless Cars, your concise — and independent — briefing on the autonomous vehicles sector.

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1. GM pays over $1bn for Cruise Automation

GM reportedly paid over $1bn for Cruise Automation (credit: GM/Cruise)

Car giant General Motors has reportedly paid more than $1bn for Cruise Automation, the autonomous car company.

GM’s President said the acquisition would “significantly accelerate” the timeline for General Motors in bringing autonomous vehicles to market.

So, who are Cruise? Cruise Automation had previously marketed aftermarket driverless car kits for Audi cars; these are technology sets that are attached to vehicles after purchase to make them autonomous.

Although it had previously operated in this niche sector, Cruise has built up a strong team and catalogue of IP — something GM surely has its eyes on.

GM said Cruise would now focus on developing driverless technology that would be integrated into its cars

GM said Cruise would now focus on developing driverless technology that would be integrated into its cars.

In January, GM invested $500m in ride-hailing app Lyft. GM has suggested in the past that it would try to operate a fleet of autonomous taxis under the Lyft brand — the acquisition of Cruise brings that much closer to a reality.

But the real surprise is the price. The 2-year-old start-up had only 40 employees and had previously only raised $18.8m.

As an aside, it’s the second billion-dollar exit for founder Kyle Vogt, who previously founded video streaming firm Twitch.

2. Toyota hires all Jaybridge staff

Toyota announced that it had hired all the staff of Jaybridge Robotics Inc (credit: Toyota)

GM wasn’t the only company stumping up money this week.

Toyota announced that it had hired the full workforce of Jaybridge Robotics. Toyota, however, was keen to stress that it has not acquired the company; nonetheless, it looks like a merger of sorts.

Jaybridge develops vehicle automation technology for heavy-duty vehicles, like haul trucks and agricultural equipment.

The business applications for autonomous technology look lucrative, and Toyota obviously thinks it can carved out a niche for itself there. Watch this space.

3. Governments battle to become autonomous vehicle hub

Governments around the world are battling it out to become the preferred place to test autonomous vehicles.

California and the UK have previously set out their stalls as the most regulatory friendly place for autonomous carmakers.

Now Canberra, Australia, has entered the race, and they are said to be lobbying Google and Tesla to experiment on their roads.

Canberra are said to be lobbying Google and Tesla to experiment on their roads

The state’s chief minister, Andrew Barr, used a speech in Parliament to highlight how autonomous vehicles could help people without a driving licence, including the elderly, get around.

So, why relocate to Canberra? That’s something they apparently forgot to answer. No tax benefits or other schemes were announced.

4. comma.ai secures venture capital, valuing the firm at $20m

Maverick programmer Geroge Hotz ghostriding in a car with comma.ai technology (credit: George Hotz/comma.ia)

comma.ai, the artificial intelligence company run by maverick technologist George ‘geohot’ Hotz, has secured venture capital investment from Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at $20m.

Last year Hotz made headlines when he released a video showing him (nearly) riding on the front of a car using his technology.

He has claimed that his technology is better than Mobileye, the vision-based advanced driving assistance system used by Tesla.

5. Google leaves everyone in its dust?

With so many carmakers and start-ups in the self-driving space, it can be easy to forget Google’s vice-like grip on the market.

Figures published by The Atlantic this week showed that Google is testing more autonomous cars in California that all the other firms combined — by far.

Google has 73 cars on the roads in California

Google has 73 cars on the roads in California. Combined, everyone else — from Tesla to Honda — has only 32.

Interestingly, Cruise Automation is testing 7 vehicles in California, a surprising amount given its low profile before this week.

6. Goodyear are going to make the wheels for your autonomous vehicle

Goodyear Tires has released a concept for spherical maglev tyres (credit: Goodyear Tires)

If you’re a tyre company, it might be easy to feel left out of the exciting driverless vehicle market. But, perhaps, not any more.

Tyre giant Goodyear this week unveiled a new concept for intelligent wheels which provide, via sensors, feedback about weather and road conditions to the car’s central software system.

Goodyear Tires also released a concept video for new spherical maglev wheels, which allow a vehicle to levitate and drive in any direction.

So, when are they going to be released? Not soon. Goodyear is still looking for the money to build them.

7. Daimler in talks with other carmakers to join HERE

Last year Daimler, BMW, and Audi agreed to pay $2.8bn for Nokia’s high-definition maps business HERE.

The software provides highly accurate information about roads and streets, such as real-time data about the amount of traffic in your area. The data is used by almost all mapping software.

This rich information is essential for autonomous vehicles in making decisions about the best — and fastest — way to reach its destination, and it was the underlying rationale to the acquisition last year.

Now Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche has said more investment is needed to make it a viable navigation tool for self-driving cars, and that they are in talks with Renault-Nissan and Continental about joining the mapping consortium.

8. Ford announces new division for autonomous vehicles

Ford has launched a new dedicated division which will develop new “mobility solutions,” which includes autonomous vehicle concepts (credit: Ford Smart Mobility/Ford)

And, finally… it was hard not to feel bad for Ford this week, whose announcement that it would be launching a new division for autonomous — and other mobility — technologies appeared on the same day as GM’s acquisition announcement.

Named Ford Smart Mobility, it is unclear what the new division will actually do, although in the announcement the firm claimed to have “the largest fleet” of self-driving vehicles of any manufacturer.

I can’t help but feel the launch of this new division says more about Ford’s senior leadership feeling like they have to something — anything — in the driverless cars space, than actual innovation. Of course, I may be wrong.

That’s your briefing for this week.



Next week, I will be watching the UK’s annual Budget statement to see what money there will be for autonomous carmakers. The sector is hoping for something big.



Until then…



— Matthew North, Editor, TWIDC

p.s. This is the online version of our free weekly newsletter. You can subscribe for our compact industry briefing by dropping your email in here: http://driverlessweekly.com (no spam; no selling; no BS)