Big companies are partnering and laying hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to commercialize the self driving car.
- General Motors is investing $500 million and partnering with Lyft
- Ford is partnering with Google
- Consortium of German auto makers bought Nokia’s mapping assets
- Uber partnered with Carnegie Mellon robotics department and hired 50 of them into the company
- Tesla activated advanced driver assist and plans to technically have self driving cars safer than human driving within two years
- Toyota will activate data gathering on all of its cars to improve its self driving software by 2020
The investment, part of a $1 billion financing round for Lyft, is the biggest move by an automaker to date when it comes to grappling with the meteoric rise of the ride-hailing industry.
GM and Lyft said they will work together to develop a network of self-driving cars that riders can call up on-demand, a vision of the future shared by the likes of Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick and Google-parent Alphabet Inc. More immediately, America’s largest automaker will offer Lyft drivers vehicles for short-term rent through various hubs in U.S. cities
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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