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Bloomberg has just published a fascinating write up detailing the race to autonomy, and how it might not be all us vs them for GM.
Keith Naughton spent some significant time with Mark Reuss, GM's product development chief at the Milford Proving Grounds in rural Michigan. Naughton was getting a first hand demonstration of Cadillacs new Super Cruise, which framed the discussion on autonomous cars.
Reuss has been critical in the past of Silicon Valley and Googles efforts to insert themselves into the auto industry. Over the summer for instance he sharply snapped "We’re in the car business today, and they’re not,” but earlier last year he deemed them “a very serious competitive threat.”
But now Reuss seems to be changing his tune, to something similar to those of birds in heat. “I’m not sure it’s an us-vs.-them thing,”
Reuss knows that Google can outspend them, with a market cap that is more then triple the big 3 combined, Google is powerhouse. On this day at Milford, Reuss is surprisingly supportive of the tech giant.
"I love the company,” he gushes. “I love the people in it.” and by the sounds of it, Reuss wants to take his crush to the next level. “We make cars, we know how to make cars,” he says. “They’ve got great technical capabilities. We are very interested in how those two might work together.”
Nothing is imminent, but earlier this month Google co-founder Sergei Brinn said “We are really focused on working with partners” adding later that partners could include major manufacturers.
We shall see...