The heartbeat of America turns to Japan to be the first to put self-driving cars on the road.
the Japanese hi-tech investment bank Softbank will invest $2.25 billion in General Motors’ autonomous vehicle efforts.
GM will also invest $1.1 billion in the joint effort. CEO Mary Barra says in a statement the investment will allow GM to launch autonomous vehicles next year.
It’s the biggest partnership between a tech investment company and an automaker in the effort to develop self-driving cars.
Softbank will own about 20% of a joint venture that has been set up to bring GM’s self-driving technology to market.
Many cars now on the market have features of self-driving vehicles, full self-driving cars have been limited to test vehicles. GM is in line to become the first company to sell autonomous vehicles on a mass scale.