Voyage Acquired by Cruise
Joining forces to deliver a safer, cleaner, and more accessible transportation alternative
Delivering a Self-Driving Service to Millions
I am delighted to share that Voyage is being acquired by Cruise! Together, we will deliver on the promise of self-driving cars — a revolutionary technology that will enable millions to move freely, affordably, and sustainably within their communities.
At Voyage, we’ve been laser-focused on delivering a product that benefits the lives of real people. Voyage’s approach has always been to leverage our limited resources to deliver a product that restores mobility to those who need it most: senior citizens. We’ve made tremendous progress towards this goal, moving countless senior citizens (some as old as 92!) around their communities. Now at Cruise, we are thrilled to have the substantial resources to eventually serve not just senior citizens, but every possible demographic who stands to benefit from self-driving services.
Cruise + Voyage
The self-driving industry is consolidating, and the leaders of a trillion-dollar market are fast emerging. After being intimately involved with the AV industry for the last five years, I can say with certainty that Cruise — with its advanced self-driving technology, unique auto-maker partnerships, and all-electric purpose-built vehicle with no human controls — is poised to be the clear leader. Now, with the addition of the customer-obsessed Voyage team, Cruise is well-positioned to deliver the best self-driving product in the world.
The World’s Most Advanced Self-Driving Technology
Over the last seven years Cruise has developed the most advanced self-driving capabilities in the world. Today, their vehicles are adept at handling the most complex driving challenges that San Francisco can throw at them, uniquely positioning Cruise to rapidly expand into other complex cities across the world while others go back to the drawing board. Just recently, Cruise reported that in the second half of 2020, their self-driving technology improved to more than 60,000 miles between reportable disengagements. And in the final three months of 2020, Cruise had zero reportable disengagements. Wow!
Voyage’s experience and development of Commander (our self-driving A.I.), Shield (our collision mitigation system), and Telessist (our novel remote assistance solution) will only supercharge Cruise’s goal of superhuman driving performance.
At Voyage, we’ve always believed that to lead this industry requires initial commercialization on either calm roadway or complex roadway, with no middle-ground to be found. Cruise’s long-standing bet on first commercializing on complex roadway — with San Francisco’s streets being 40X more complex than the suburbs — has paid off. Driverless testing — with no one in the driver’s seat — continues on the streets of San Francisco. Soon those same vehicles will be carrying passengers to their destinations anywhere in the city.
A Unique Auto-Maker Partnership
Cruise is the only autonomous vehicle company with the ability to produce fully integrated self-driving vehicles at global manufacturing scale.
Not only is Cruise’s self-driving software uniquely positioned to rapidly scale from San Francisco to dense, urban cities around the world, but Cruise’s self-driving hardware is, too. Cruise’s deep partnerships with GM and Honda deliver the crucial engineering, manufacturing, and safety expertise required to scale a handful of self-driving vehicles to millions and do so with unrivaled cost efficiencies.
As one of the first AV companies to serve customers, Voyage has proven that we can execute on the challenge of delivering sound unit economics in self-driving. Delivering self-driving technology is hard, but building a viable self-driving business is harder. Now at Cruise, we are excited to put these unique advantages to work and deliver the safest, most affordable transportation alternative for everyone.
The Cruise Origin
If you could build a new transportation system from the ground up, the Cruise Origin would form the foundation. The Origin is a powerful reimagining of the car, akin to the Macintosh of personal computers. It’s designed for a future where the car is entirely self-driven, all-electric, and shared, and, yet again, Cruise — with its deep pockets and automotive partners — is uniquely positioned to deliver the tremendous benefits of the Origin.
After observing the technology space for a few decades now, I’ve been lucky to witness many special product introductions. In some cases — like Steve Jobs’ iPhone introduction in 2007 — these products change the world for the better. When Dan Ammann and Kyle Vogt launched the Cruise Origin in January 2020, I felt that same special feeling as the iPhone launch. Here was a product powered by a magical technology that would change lives for the better.
I am thrilled that key members of our Voyage team—particularly those who worked on our third-generation robotaxi—will be able to use their extensive experience in vehicle development to put their stamp on the Cruise Origin, delivering a better and safer future for our roadways.
We Accomplished Much
Our journey began in 2016. At the time, we were building an open-source self-driving car, and together with our contributors, we felt immense pride and joy in solving the complex problems of self-driving technology. After many months of long days and nights, we were surprised to discover that what really motivated us wasn’t the technology or the hard problems. It was the people that came to ride in our car and the visible excitement on their faces as they glimpsed a possible future. When you see that unbridled enthusiasm in people’s faces, you know you’re on to something far bigger than just solving a technical problem. You’re working on a product that will change lives. Since that realization, we’ve solved a lot of hard problems, but always and obsessively in the service of crafting a product that would leave our customers delighted and their lives improved.
With a team of 60 Voyagers, we shipped three generations of robotaxis with the G1, G2, and G3. We delivered a comprehensive self-driving technology with Commander, Shield, and Telessist. We pioneered reinforcement learning techniques with Deepdrive and shared our powerful work in Fleet Learning and Active Learning. We signed partnerships with leading companies like FCA, First Transit, Enterprise, and Intact Insurance. Lastly — and most meaningfully — we partnered deeply with retirement communities like The Villages in San Jose and The Villages in Florida, transporting senior citizens who struggled daily with transportation.
At Voyage, we’ve accomplished much with relatively little. A huge thank you to our team, our investors, and all our supporters who made that possible. We are nowhere near done though. There’s still much to do to fulfill our mission of delivering on the promise of self-driving cars and we couldn’t be more excited to continue that mission with the incredible, world-class team at Cruise.
This transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
