Microsoft partners with Cruise on self-driving cars, invests $ 2 billion

Microsoft is partnering with Cruise, the autonomous subsidiary of General Motors, to help accelerate the commercialization of autonomous vehicles. The software giant is also participating in a new $ 2 billion stock investment for Cruise, alongside previous investors Honda and GM, bringing the audiovisual company’s valuation to $ 30 billion.

Microsoft and Cruise are entering “a long-term strategic relationship” – although the partnership is not exclusive. This is Microsoft’s first partnership with an autonomous vehicle company. As part of the deal, Cruise will use Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, to accelerate the revenue generation process through its fleet of autonomous vehicles. For its part, Microsoft will leverage its relationship with Cruise to further develop in the transportation sector.

“Advances in digital technology are redefining all aspects of our work and our lives, including the way we transport people and goods,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. “As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them evolve and integrate autonomous transportation.”

Cruise has demonstrated an impressive talent for fundraising over the past few years, although she is considered to lag behind her main rival Waymo in terms of technical accomplishments. In 2018, Cruise secured a $ 2.25 billion investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. Later that year, GM partnered with Honda to design a purpose-built self-driving car. The Japanese automaker said it will spend $ 2 billion on the effort over 12 years, including a $ 750 million capital investment in Cruise. In 2019, Cruise secured a $ 1.15 billion investment from GM, SoftBank, Honda and T. Rowe Price Group. This latest investment valued Cruise at $ 19 billion.

Meanwhile, Waymo has only participated in one external fundraiser of $ 3 billion. But the Alphabet company has arguably made more progress in terms of marketing its technology. Last October, Waymo announced it would begin offering rides to paying customers in its fully driverless, driverless security vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona.

Cruise recently began testing its fully autonomous vehicles for the first time in San Francisco. But the company does not allow non-employees to get into its vehicles. The company had planned to launch a commercial taxi service in 2019, but has not, and has yet to publicly commit to a new date.

Last year, Cruise unveiled the Cruise Origin, a prototype of a completely driverless vehicle without a steering wheel, pedals, or any controls typically associated with human driving. The vehicle, which will go into production at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant, is designed to be shared by multiple passengers – although it remains to be seen how much of an appetite there is for shared vehicles in a world. post-COVID. Cruise recently unveiled a new set of security protocols meant to keep people socially at bay during travel and the vehicle sanitized between fares.

Microsoft has been largely absent from the race to develop autonomous vehicles among the world’s major technology companies. But the software giant is still poised to take advantage of this technology, especially when it comes to vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Today’s connected car networks ingest a deluge of digital information, including advanced driver assistance features like automatic braking, adaptive cruise control, and lane keeping assist. Soon this information will be the backbone of self-reliance.

Microsoft has been working quietly behind the scenes to create a connected vehicle platform on top of its Azure cloud system. Renault Nissan was the first to commit to it in January 2017. Volkswagen signed in October 2018.

It also represents a change for General Motors. Since 2011, GM has used Google’s messaging and application suite for its 100,000 employees. But now GM, which is the largest automaker in North America, will work with Microsoft for its cloud computing needs.