Honda Motor Co will invest $2.75 billion and take a 5.7 percent stake in General Motors Co’s Cruise self-driving vehicle unit, to jointly develop autonomous vehicles for deployment in ride services fleets around the world, according to a Reuters article.
The deal calls for Honda to provide engineering expertise, and comes only months after Japan’s SoftBank Group made a multibillion-dollar commitment to Cruise. The investment puts Cruise in a league with Alphabet Inc’s Waymo unit in terms of resources and plans.
Cruise Chief Executive and Co-founder Kyle Vogt told Reuters that Cruise and Honda would design a vehicle intended to be autonomous rather than the modified sedan with a steering wheel and driver controls that it is working on. Vogt still believes the company is on track for their 2019 deadline to release the first version or first wave of new vehicles.
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