
GM’s self-driving division Cruise raises another $1.15B - cl42
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18535194/gm-cruise-self-driving-car-investment-valuation
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zaroth
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.

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andymoe
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.

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warp_factor
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
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
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

