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GM’s self-driving division Cruise raises another $1.15B

5 points by cl42 7y ago

andymoe 7y ago
I wish them luck! I have friends at Cruise but judging from how their cars drive around my neighborhood I’m a bit worried. I know city driving is super tough but these cars are sooo timid. Perhaps it’s a safety thing. Another red flag was a recruiting email I got recently comparing them to all the other self driving car efforts but not addressing anything Tesla is doing. I’m worried they are going to get absolutely destroyed.
- warp_factor 7y ago
  Why would anyone take Tesla seriously? Anyone that follows the field know they are far far behind the big ones doing this for years (Waymo, Cruise, Zoox,...). They did a huge PR//Marketing push, but didn't show anything yet.
  - andymoe 7y ago
    Only Tesla has a reasonable goto market strategy. It’s incremental with fast feedback loops and I don’t think folks understand what an advantage that is so Tesla is being underestimated.
    - warp_factor 7y ago
      What advantage exactly? Yes they can get some data from some cars sometimes. They definitely don't have the infrastructure to manage the terrabytes per hour that the other classical players generate. They might have an advantage in 15 years, when you don't need a lidar because cameras will be good enough
zaroth 7y ago
Looking at the picture of the test vehicle in that article, I can't imagine what that sensor suite costs. It looks like it costs more than the car itself. Cruise acquired Strobe last year, a maker of lidar chips, and claimed the acquisition would help them "reduce sensor costs by up to 99%." There would have to be a lot of zeros in the current price for that to be anywhere close to achievable. > GM bought Cruise in 2016 for $1 billion to jump-start its self-driving efforts. The company has said it plans to deploy its fully driverless cars, without steering wheel or pedals, for commercial ride-hailing use as early as 2019. Cruise just raised at a post-money valuation of $19 billion and wants to ship cars without steering wheel or pedals for commercial ride-hailing this year. Elon & TSLA is looking smarter, and saner, by the minute.

5 points by cl42 7y ago

I wish them luck! I have friends at Cruise but judging from how their cars drive around my neighborhood I’m a bit worried. I know city driving is super tough but these cars are sooo timid. Perhaps it’s a safety thing. Another red flag was a recruiting email I got recently comparing them to all the other self driving car efforts but not addressing anything Tesla is doing. I’m worried they are going to get absolutely destroyed.

warp_factor 7y ago
Why would anyone take Tesla seriously? Anyone that follows the field know they are far far behind the big ones doing this for years (Waymo, Cruise, Zoox,...). They did a huge PR//Marketing push, but didn't show anything yet.
- andymoe 7y ago
  Only Tesla has a reasonable goto market strategy. It’s incremental with fast feedback loops and I don’t think folks understand what an advantage that is so Tesla is being underestimated.
  - warp_factor 7y ago
    What advantage exactly? Yes they can get some data from some cars sometimes. They definitely don't have the infrastructure to manage the terrabytes per hour that the other classical players generate. They might have an advantage in 15 years, when you don't need a lidar because cameras will be good enough

zaroth 7y ago

Looking at the picture of the test vehicle in that article, I can't imagine what that sensor suite costs. It looks like it costs more than the car itself. Cruise acquired Strobe last year, a maker of lidar chips, and claimed the acquisition would help them "reduce sensor costs by up to 99%." There would have to be a lot of zeros in the current price for that to be anywhere close to achievable. > GM bought Cruise in 2016 for $1 billion to jump-start its self-driving efforts. The company has said it plans to deploy its fully driverless cars, without steering wheel or pedals, for commercial ride-hailing use as early as 2019. Cruise just raised at a post-money valuation of $19 billion and wants to ship cars without steering wheel or pedals for commercial ride-hailing this year. Elon & TSLA is looking smarter, and saner, by the minute.