While subject to customary closing conditions, General Motors’ freshly announced acquisition of Cruise Automation is expected to finalize in the second quarter of 2016.
Cruise will operate as an independent unit within General Motors’ Autonomous Vehicle Development Team, which is currently led by GM’s VP of autonomous tech & vehicle execution, Doug Parks.
“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.”
For General Motors, the acquisition of Cruise is simply another step toward their goal of redefining the future of personal mobility. “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,” explained GM executive VP of Global Product Development, Mark Reuss.
Recently, GM has also partnered up with ride-sharing company Lyft, formed their own personal mobility brand for car-sharing fleets called Maven, and established a separate division for autonomous vehicle development.
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