General Motors revealed today that it is acquiring Cruise Automation, a Y Combinator-backed startup that specializes in self-driving car technology. According to Re/code, the deal cost GM more than $1 billion and will be finalized in the next few months.
Cruise will continue to operate independently, but the San Francisco-based company will now focus specifically on outfitting GM’s vehicles with its autonomous technology. “This will significantly accelerate the timeline for bringing autonomous vehicles to market,” GM president Dan Ammann told Re/code.
Like other automakers, GM is looking to crack the increasingly crowded autonomous car market before tech giants like Google and Apple, who are pouring their myriad resources into getting their self-driving cars to launch.
GM’s acquisition of Cruise comes just two months after the company announced a partnership with Lyft to build a fleet of on-demand self-driving cars.
[via TechCrunch]