Honda investing $2B in GM self-driving vehicle unit

Automaker Honda is investing billions in self-driving car technology over the next decade, company representatives said Wednesday.

Honda is paying $750 million immediately and investing another $2 billion over 12 years in General Motors’ Cruise self-driving technology, which is in development and has yet to be released to consumers, Reuters reports.

{mosads}The two companies will use the Cruise brand and technology to jointly develop self-driving vehicles for ride services around the world, according to the news service.

“This investment is based on a shared vision and their [GM’s and Cruise’s] superior technologies in this area,” Honda executive vice president of strategy Seiji Kuraishi told Reuters.

Honda’s investment in Cruise, a San Francisco-based startup acquired by GM in March 2016, values the company at $14.6 billion, about one-third of GM’s total market cap, according to the report.

News of Honda’s delve into self-driving technology comes just two months after a study found that self-driving cars operated by BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla and Volvo often failed to stop in time when presented with obstacles, a setback for the industry.

“The early results underscore the fact that today’s systems aren’t robust substitutes for human drivers,” an insurance trade group said at the time.

An incident involving a self-driving Uber car in March made headlines when a prototype vehicle hit and killed a pedestrian.