Cruise and General Motors announced that they are collaborating with Microsoft to develop autonomous car technologies.
An American company located in California driverless car cruise and American-based vehicle and engine manufacturer , General Motors , Microsoft announced that it entered into a long-term strategic partnership. The reason for this partnership is to enable Microsoft to accelerate the commercialization of autonomous cars. Cruise and General Motors aim to bring together Microsoft’s software and hardware engineering capabilities, cloud computing technology, manufacturing know-how and partner ecosystem in order to popularize self-driving technology.
The basic details of this agreement are as follows:
- Cruise will leverage Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform Azure to commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale to unlock the potential of cloud computing for driverless vehicles.
- Microsoft, Cruise’s preferred cloud provider, will leverage Cruise’s deep industry expertise to drive customer-centric product innovation and serve shipping companies around the world by continually investing in Azure.
- Microsoft will also participate in the combined new equity investment of General Motors, Honda and institutional investors in Cruise of more than $ 2 billion and the investment level will be increased to $ 30 billion.
Statements Made by Company Managers on the Issue
Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said, “We have a mission to provide safer, better and more affordable transportation for everyone. “It’s not just a tech race, it’s a trust race,” he said. “As the gold standard for reliable democratization of technology, Microsoft will provide us with enormous power when commercializing our fleet of self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles. he added.
“Advances in digital technology are redefining every facet of our business and life, including how we move people and goods,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud systems company, we will use the power of Azure to help them scale this market and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”
“Microsoft is making a huge contribution to our team as the world moves towards a zero collision and zero-emission future,” said Mary Barra, General Motors President and CEO. “Microsoft will enable the commercialization of Cruise’s all-electric, autonomous vehicles and enable GM to further leverage Azure cloud computing as it launches 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and creates new jobs and services to support growth.”