A few months ago, many people learned about San Francisco-based startup Cruise Automation for the first time. After raising around $19 million and quietly building sensors for self-driving cars, the company got acquired by General Motors. So the startup must know a thing or two about the future of cars. That’s why Cruise founder and CEO Kyle Vogt will join us on stage at Disrupt SF 2016.
Many tech companies, such as Velodyne LiDAR, Mobileye and Cruise have been partnering with car manufacturers to power their self-driving technologies. Velodyne LiDAR works with Ford, Mobileye works with Tesla and other manufacturers, and now, Cruise isn’t just working with General Motors but is part of it.
This way, General Motors can make sure that no other company will be able to use Cruise’s technology. But what makes it so special then?
The car manufacturer doesn’t want to rule on the tiny startup, that’s why Cruise remains an independent division within General Motors. The only thing that is going to change is that General Motors probably plans to ship many, many cars with Cruise’s technology so that the company can flip the switch on self-driving features when software is ready.
Vogt was one of the founders behind Justin.tv, Socialcam and Twitch. He then got involved in self-driving tech with Cruise.
But it’s still going to take five to ten years before full self-driving cars become available to the end consumer. In the mean time, Vogt can tell us the remaining steps to get there.
Early bird tickets are available for Disrupt SF – you can get your tickets here.
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