Carmakers race to catch up with Silicon Valley rivals
Developing driverless cars requires unique skills and immense amount of cash
Does a traditional carmaker or a big technology company win in autonomous vehicles?
This week’s deal between rivals Honda and General Motors to develop self-driving cars highlights how the traditional automotive industry is racing to catch up with Silicon Valley rivals.
Cruise, GM’s unit for autonomous vehicles, secured a $2.75bn investment from Honda this week just four months after SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested $2.25bn in the venture. The following day Toyota struck a partnership with SoftBank to create a range of services for self-driving vehicles.
The truth is, though, that the endeavour requires different sorts of skills from mastery of Lidar sensors to software. It also requires immense amounts of cash. Across Germany, Japan and the US, partnerships are now common.
One early leader, Waymo, has partnered with Fiat Chrysler. The self-driving unit of Google’s parent Alphabet has completed more than 9m testing miles — far more than others in the sector — and has begun a trial service for potential customers.
Another tech company, Aurora, started by former Waymo director Chris Urmson, is working with Volkswagen, Hyundai and the Chinese electric group Byton.
Other carmakers have chosen to develop their own technologies. Toyota, Renault Nissan, Daimler and Tesla are all working in-house.