(USA)
General Motors (GM) has been shopping in the startup market again to strengthen its hand in producing self-driving vehicles.
It has purchased Strobe, a young company that develops LIDAR tech – which uses light to generate hi-res images with a higher accuracy than cameras or radars. Strobe’s engineers will join GM’s Cruise Automation team – a driverless tech startup from San Francisco GM bought for a billion dollars last year.
“The successful deployment of self-driving vehicles will be highly dependent on the availability of LIDAR sensors,” said Julie Schoenfeld, Founder and CEO, Strobe. “Strobe’s deep engineering talent and technology backed by numerous patents will play a significant role in helping GM and Cruise bring these vehicles to market sooner than many think.”
GM believes the move will accelerate its ambitions to provide autonomous cars – at scale – to customers in the near future.
“Strobe’s LIDAR technology will significantly improve the cost and capabilities of our vehicles so that we can more quickly accomplish our mission to deploy driverless vehicles at scale,” added Kyle Vogt, Founder and CEO, Cruise Automation.
