Cruise cofounder and CTO Kyle Vogt unveils the Origin electric driverless shuttle in San Francisco.
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Cruise, the San Francisco-based robotaxi developer backed by General Motors, is getting financial and technological support from Microsoft to help it commercialize the autonomous ride service its developing.
The tech giant is joining a new $2 billion funding round for Cruise, which also includes backing from Honda and institutional investors, and is making its cloud computing platform Azure available for the company’s developers. With the new investment round, Cruise estimates its valuation is now $30 billion.
“Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. “As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”
The new partnership with Microsoft strengthens Cruise’s push to get its autonomous electric Origin vans on the road as it vies with competitors including Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox to create a viable service in urban markets. Still, the exact timing of when any of the companies will be able to launch large-scale commercial operations remains unclear.
“Our mission to bring safer, better, and more affordable transportation to everyone isn’t just a tech race–it’s also a trust race,” said Cruise CEO Dan Ammann. “Microsoft, as the gold standard in the trustworthy democratization of technology, will be a force multiplier for us as we commercialize our fleet of self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles.”
Microsoft’s previous forays into autonomous vehicle development include serving as the data partner for Michigan’s American Center for Mobility and providing its Azure technology for use by Apollo, the open-source software initiative led by China’s Baidu.
