
Cruise Automation COO Dan Kan, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, then GM President Dan Ammann – Cruise offices in San Francisco – June 2018. (l to r)
Cruise and General Motors today announced they have entered a long-term strategic relationship with Microsoft to “accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles.” The companies claimed they will bring together their software and hardware engineering, cloud computing capabilities, manufacturing ability, and partners to “create a safer, cleaner and more accessible world for everyone.” AutoInformed thinks that making money on autonomous vehicles remains a distant promise.*
Microsoft will join General Motors, Honda and institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 billion in Cruise, bringing the post-money valuation of Cruise to $30 billion. Founded and headquartered in San Francisco, Cruise’s stated goal is to build the world’s most advanced self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles. GM will launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025. Volkswagen and Ford havelinked with Pittsburgh autonomous vehicle company Argo AI, already. Hyundai in with Fiat Chrysler since the summer of 2020 to use Waymo’s driverless car technology. Continue reading











Stellantis – a Mega Merger of Auto Companies Names Execs
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Today Stellantis officially announced its Executive Team along with the 9 dedicated committees* covering enterprise-wide performance and strategy for running the merged FCA and PSA companies. It is the latest merger in the capital-destroying automotive industry that seeks to pursue scale where the promise of synergies will – it is hoped – result in competitive rates of return, along with a sustainable business. (see AutoInformed on Bye Bye FCA and PSA. Hello Stellantis)
Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, said at its inaugural press conference: “This highly competitive, committed and well-balanced team will leverage its combined skills and diverse backgrounds to guide Stellantis to become a great company.” He claimed that this was not a defensive merger. (Stellantis means “brightens with stars”; from the Latin verb stello.)
The Stellantis name will be used exclusively at the Group level, as a corporate brand. The names and the logos of the Stellantis Group’s basic 14 brands remain unchanged. What actually happens to the brands is an entirely different matter. AutoInformed readers likely realized that such mergers are difficult, and the road – looking backward – is littered with abandoned or failed promises of synergies and sales from such ventures. (FCA + PSA = Massive Job Losses, FCA-PSA Merger – Surviving Platforms and Powertrains) Continue reading →