GM to Build Facility for Self-Driving Cars, Add Employees
April 13 2017 - 7:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias
General Motors Co. will build a development facility in San
Francisco and eventually add 1,100 employees there to work on
autonomous vehicles, a major expansion of GM's Silicon Valley
presence as it vies with other auto makers to lead the race for
self-driving cars.
GM said Thursday it will spend $14 million on the project, which
will expand the headquarters of the company's Cruise Automation
subsidiary. The startup, acquired by GM in March 2016, is
developing the software that serves as the nerve center for its
future autonomous vehicles.
The hiring spree, which will be done over five years, would
represent an eightfold increase in Cruise's staff, underscoring the
substantial investment GM and other car companies are making to get
autonomous vehicles on the road. GM has more than tripled its
Cruise head count since the acquisition, to about 150 people.
GM said in February that it is spending roughly $150 million per
quarter on autonomous-vehicle development. The company is testing
about 50 self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles in San
Francisco, Scottsdale, Ariz., and suburban Detroit.
Data from California regulators show Cruise logged about 10,000
miles of autonomous driving on California roads during the year
ended Nov. 30, second to Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo unit, which recorded
635,868 miles.
The software development done at Cruise is being integrated with
GM's massive engineering center in Detroit, though company
executives say they have been careful to keep the Cruise operation
as a stand-alone entity to nurture a startup mentality.
"Running our autonomous vehicle program as a startup is giving
us the speed we need to continue to stay at the forefront of
development of these technologies and the market applications," GM
Chief Executive Mary Barra said in a statement Thursday.
GM said the expansion of Cruise's existing facility will more
than double its space and be completed by year-end. The state of
California granted an $8 million tax credit to pave the way for the
expansion, GM said.
Big auto makers increasingly are looking to Silicon Valley for
the software expertise needed in autonomous driving. Ford Motor Co.
in February acquired majority ownership in Argo AI, an artificial
intelligence startup. Ford said it would invest $1 billion in the
company over five years.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 13, 2017 19:08 ET (23:08 GMT)
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