GM-backed Cruise acquires self-driving startup Voyage

Cruise, a self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, announced today that it is acquiring Voyage, a self-driving startup. It’s the latest in a trend of consolidation in the industry.

“The self-driving industry is consolidating, and the leaders of a trillion-dollar market are fast emerging,” said Voyager co-founder and CEO Oliver Cameron in a blog post. “After being intimately involved with the AV (autonomous vehicle) industry for the last five years, I can say with certainty that Cruise — with its advanced self-driving technology, unique auto-maker partnerships, and all-electric purpose-built vehicle with no human controls — is posed to be the clear leader.”

GM-backed Cruise is relatively well-funded compared to Voyage. It operates its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco — it began testing fully driverless cars late last year — while Voyage has been testing mostly in smaller retirement communities like in San Jose, California and The Villages, Florida. Voyage is a startup that spun out of online education company Udacity.

Cruise itself has teamed up with Microsoft recently to help accelerate its research. Other notable self-driving partnerships include Amazon purchasing Zoox, Apple buying drive.ai and Uber selling its self-driving division to Aurora.