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It also delivered positive adjusted EBITDA and a better-than-expected cash burn rate. Given higher demand, management expects to commence service on 12 new ships, bringing the number of total fleets to 174 ships by the end of Q3 2022. Such a target will still be a challenge as a lack of progressive national policy paving the way for commercial AV deployment may hinder progress; the next markets for expansion may be Las Vegas or Los Angeles. The new ARS market is yet to start, other than Waymo's initial service in Phoenix. More companies will initiate autonomous ride services in their first target metropolitan markets, expand service in that market, and then enter new metropolitan markets. For the first five years or more, growth will come primarily in the easier to serve metropolitan areas in the southern and western parts of the U.S.
The Vision Fund says goodbye
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. stock rises Thursday, still underperforms market - MarketWatch
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. stock rises Thursday, still underperforms market.
Posted: Thu, 22 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
The ARS dispatch platform will send AVs to pick up passengers and after direct the vehicles to the next location. It will also monitor the status of each AV, respond to passenger requests, and even take control of the AV if needed. Autonomous vehicles will redefine transportation as we know it today, just as online shopping redefined retail.
Now in Phoenix
Cruise intends to transition away from a traditional passenger vehicle such as the Bolt to GM's purpose-built people mover, the Origin - an odd-looking conveyance that lacks steering wheel and other traditional control devices. This is a clear leader in autonomous driving with a lot of growth potential. Ammann was president of GM and went to Cruise to prepare self-driving technology for commercialization. Since then, he has been expanding the company by hiring more technology experts.
Investors
GM is seeking clearance from federal safety regulators for self-driving cars that do not have conventional controls, such as a steering wheel. It already has a permit from California to remove backup drivers from its autonomous vehicles, and it is building a large vehicle charging station in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood. GM originally acquired Cruise Automation for more than $1 billion in May 2016. Since then, GM has organized its autonomous vehicle efforts, mainly its autonomous ride services (ARS), around Cruise. During the first quarter business update, management disclosed that RCL’s advanced booking volumes have surpassed the record levels achieved in 2019 by 40%, lending optimism to future growth prospects. As RCL commences full-fleet operations during the year, management hopes to return to full profitability by the second half of 2022.
Apparently, GM has other autonomous vehicle investments on the horizon as well. Cruise Automation's Vogt, meanwhile, called the acquisition "a ground-breaking and necessary step toward rapidly commercializing autonomous vehicle technology." Cruise employees still hold shares in the company, but since these are not publicly traded they can only be sold if GM schedules a liquidity event, which has traditionally occurred every quarter. A third party evaluates and sets a valuation for the shares before there is a tender offer.
Investments
Cruise COO Gil West told Reuters the AV developer is aiming to enter a "large number of markets" and deploy up to "thousands of vehicles" in 2023. This would mark a pretty rapid expansion of commercial services and fleet size, not just for Cruise but for the broader AV industry. Cruise believes this expansion can be done with the launch of the Origin, a purpose-built AV with no steering wheel or pedals, tailored for autonomous ride-hailing. The California DMV has approved Cruise to test the Origin in San Francisco, so commercial deployment and charging for rides to the public still is multiple months away. UISEE Technology specializes in artificial intelligence and autonomous driving within the transportation and logistics sectors. The company offers a range of autonomous vehicles including unmanned logistics vehicles, autonomous buses, and light trucks, as well as AI-driven services for passenger cars such as RoboTaxi and U-Pilot.
GM's Cruise suspends its employee equity program - Reuters
GM's Cruise suspends its employee equity program.
Posted: Thu, 16 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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In a statement posted to its website, cofounder and CEO Kyle Vogt said the new “Recurring Liquidity Opportunity,” or RLO for short, would level the playing field with publicly traded companies when it comes to recruiting the best and brightest engineers. This would obviate any need in the foreseeable future to list on the capital markets in order to better compete for top talent. Late on Friday, GM said it had bought SoftBank out of the robotaxi developer, acquiring its stake for $2.1 billion and, separately, pledging to honor the Japanese venture capital firm’s commitment to inject a further $1.35 billion into the company. Cruise confirmed separately that this ended the debate over whether it would seek an initial public offering. On Thursday, Cruise abruptly ended a program allowing employees and alumni to sell company stock back to its corporate parent, General Motors.
Cruise has lost more than $8 billion since 2017, including $728 million in the third quarter of 2023, according to GM financial records. Cruise closed the third quarter with $1.7 billion in cash, which should give it nine months of runway. The employee share program involves GM buying back vested equity on a quarterly basis to facilitate recurring liquidity. The shares were historically bought based on valuation, but Cruise’s valuation has changed since an October 2 incident that left a pedestrian stuck under and dragged by a Cruise robotaxi.
Cruise IPO: How to buy this autonomous car maker's stock? - Kalkine Media
At a top speed limit of 30 miles per hour and can drive in light rain and light fog. Cruise received permission to test autonomous vehicles on public roads with a safety driver in 2015 and without a driver in October 2020. GM’s presentation will include updates on the automaker’s electric vehicle plans, its SuperCruise driver-assistance feature and how the company will use its Ultify software platform to generate more revenue from app-based services in cars.
Cruise cited the need to reevaluate how to offer competitive compensation, according to sources who spoke to TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity. "What I'm really excited about is we're going from zero footprint, no maps, no infrastructure on the ground - to our first revenue-generating driverless rides in about 90 days. This is something people thought may take years. It doesn't," he said. In Phoenix, Cruise will be working with Walmart (WMT) - an investor in the amount of $2.75 billion - on package delivery. As Cruise plans to scale, it faces increasing competition from other AV developers, namely Alphabet's Waymo (GOOG), which is now testing in LA and Bellevue, Wa., with commercial operations in Phoenix and services in SF. Uber (UBER) and Motional just deployed robotaxis in Las Vegas, a market Motional is already familiar with via Lyft (LYFT). Founded in 1993, The Motley Fool is a financial services company dedicated to making the world smarter, happier, and richer.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles last week gave the company a permit to charge fees for autonomous vehicle services. That means Cruise can operate delivery services for a fee using its self-driving cars without a safety driver. All autonomous vehicle operators need approval from the Public Utility Commission to charge passengers for rides in the state. Cruise has approximately 300 autonomous vehicles in its fleet at the moment, testing and operating in San Francisco, Austin, and Phoenix.
Next on the list is launching the Cruise Origin (shown above), a specially designed vehicle for the autonomous ride-sharing market. There's no driver, and passengers will face each other, maximizing rider space in the vehicle. The launch of this vehicle will take billions of dollars and be high-risk, which is what SoftBank's $1.35 billion investment would have been used for. Now, GM is responsible for the investment and will take even more control over Cruise.
