Walmart
Walmart is investing in the self-driving Cruise, as part of a major $ 2.75 billion investment round in the company – an extension of the $ 2 billion round announced in January. The original announcement features three other big names: GM, Honda and Microsoft.
Cruise was originally an independent company, but was acquired by GM in 2016. GM has poured billions into the company, increasingly seeking additional financial support from foreign investors.
Recently, Cruise indicated that it is only a few years to launch its technology commercially. Earlier this week, Cruise announced that it would launch a self-driving taxi service in Dubai in 2023. Cruise CEO Dan Ammann told Bloomberg that he would start a commercial service in San Francisco before starting in Dubai.
Ammann also said Cruise planned to begin production of the Origin – its custom driverless shuttle – in the “later part of next year or the early part of 2023.” But he said it would be possible for Cruise to offer earlier rides using its current GM bolt in San Francisco. This suggests that Cruise intends to launch its San Francisco service at the latest in 2022 or 2023.
But, like several of its competitors, Cruise has previously missed self-imposed deadlines. In January 2018, Cruise said it would launch a driverless robot taxi service by the end of 2019. That never happened, and now Cruise is again predicting that a commercial launch will take place in about two years.
Cruise and Walmart announced a pilot project for Cruise last November to operate a Walmart delivery service in Scottsdale, Arizona. But Walmart’s relationship with Cruise is far from exclusive. Walmart has also done pilot projects with Waymo, Ford, Nuro and Udelv. On the other hand, I can find no announcements that Walmart has invested in these other companies.