GM and Honda could give us self-driving car with a minibar

Cruise Automation wants to build the ultimate autonomous car.

The company, led by Kyle Vogt, the cofounder of the livestreaming platform Twitch, might be tootling its self-driving technology around San Francisco in camera-and-sensor-loaded Chevy Bolts at the moment … but after a $2.75 billion investment from Honda, look out for different cars in the near future.

Cruise was bought by General Motors and has built its self-driving tech into GM cars. But now Honda is entering the picture to re-envision what a Cruise autonomous car looks like.

In a Wednesday morning blog post about the investment, Vogt asked, “Shouldn’t the car of the future have giant TV screens, a minibar, and lay-flat seats?” He said his company is working on a car with Honda that isn’t modified for self-driving, but built from inception with autonomous driving in mind. 

He described the future car as “fully released from the constraints of having a driver behind the wheel.” 

For GM and Cruise, this means working with Honda, which has committed to investing $2 billion over the next 12 years to build this autonomous vehicle and grow the Cruise network for what GM called “commercial deployment.” The remaining $750 million is an investment in Cruise. GM still owns Cruise and is staying involved in the self-driving cars program.

Cruise recently brought in $2.25 billion from SoftBank (the same investors backing Uber), so its valuation has soared to $14.6 billion. 

Paul Asel, managing partner of Bay Area venture firm NGP Capital, said in an email that self-driving cars are costing more than car makers like GM anticipated. “This is yet another example of [original equipment manufacturers] collaborating in response to external existential threats.”

What the Cruise-Honda-GM vehicle will look like is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’ll go the Volvo way with a sleep-friendly arrangement, or maybe it’ll be something we can’t even conceive. Vogt said the new vehicle will have “an incredible user experience, optimal operational parameters, and efficient use of space.” None of that screams bar-in-the-back-seat, but let’s not dismiss the possibility yet.