General Motors‘ majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise has agreed to acquire Voyage, a self-driving car startup that was focused on operating in retirement communities.
CNBC said the companies announced the deal in a blog post by Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron who will join Cruise as vice president of product.
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A majority of Voyage’s 60 employees were expected to join Cruise, a spokesman told CNBC.
The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal.
Cruise spokesman Ray Wert declined to comment to CNBC on the cost of the deal.
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By GlobalDataIt's unclear how long Cruise will continue operating in the retirement communities. Wert told CNBC the "communities in which they operate are not on our immediate roadmap".
Instead, Cruise is focused on launching a robotaxi business in San Francisco.
"Voyage is tightly aligned to our mission, and shares our mindset around safety, accessibility, cost and convenience for customers," Wert told CNBC in an email. "Their talented team is highly productive and resourceful, with direct experience in developing a full-stack AV solution that will help accelerate our efforts to build the world's most advanced self-driving vehicles."
CNBC noted the acquisition added to an ongoing consolidation in the autonomous vehicle sector after years of enthusiasm touting the technology as the next multi-trillion [dollar] market for transportation companies. Some companies, such as Uber Technologies, have given up on developing the systems in-house, while others such as Zoox sold to Amazon. Alphabet's Waymo remains the most high-profile front-runner, operating a public autonomous vehicle fleet in Arizona.
CNBC said Cruise had remained steadfast in its testing since being acquired by GM in 2016. It had grown its registered testing fleet to more than 200 vehicles but hadn't yet announced when it planned to offer a robotaxi fleet to the public in San Francisco. It initially planned to do so in 2019.
Other investors in Cruise now include Honda Motor, SoftBank Vision Fund and Microsoft.
The Cruise-Voyage deal is subject to customary closing conditions, CNBC added.
