Microsoft said to be thinking of sinking $10m into self-driving truck startup
- Reference: 1673004608
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/01/06/microsoft_gatik_autonomous_driving/
- Source link:
In this case, Reuters [1]reported that Microsoft is in advanced talks with the self-driving vehicle biz to make the investment, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The $10 million would be part of an investment round that would push Gatik's value to more than $700 million, with the California-based company agreeing to use Microsoft's Azure cloud and edge platform in developing autonomous technology for delivery trucks.
[2]
The sources noted that the details of the agreement could change.
[3]
[4]
Gatik, founded in 2017, has already raised $121.6 million over four rounds, including $85 million in August 2021 from a group of 10 investors led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, according to [5]Crunchbase .
A Microsoft spokesperson told The Register the company "doesn't comment on rumors or speculation." Gatik has yet to respond to a request for comment. We will update the story when the company responds.
[6]
Gatik runs a fleet of light- to medium-duty trucks, focusing on short-haul deliveries between businesses in the retail industry. The trucks run 12 hours a day over routes that have fixed pickup and drop-off points.
Machine learning gets semi conscious... Waymo, Daimler vow to bring self-driving trucks to American highways [7]READ MORE
It says it has multiple Fortune 500 companies as customers in both the US and Canada, including Walmart, and in 2021 partnered with Isuzu North America to develop autonomous medium-duty trucks.
There has been a lot of effort behind the self-driving vehicle push in recent years and a host of related [8]technologies being shown off at this week's CES 2023 show in Las Vegas, though [9]reports say the hype has been tempered by the reality of the challenges in and cost of R&D and [10]safety concerns surrounding the technology.
Tech companies like Google, through its Waymo business, have poured billions of dollars into self-driving technology and Amazon in 2020 bought autonomous vehicle startup Zoox for more than $1.2 billion.
However, in October 2022, Argo AI – a company backed by Ford and Volkswagen – shut down after the two automotive giants decided to shift their financial resources elsewhere, such as to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
[11]
In a [12]report about 2022 automotive trends, Gartner analysts noted that the expense involved with proving the effectiveness and safety as well as real-world and simulated testing is making commercialization at scale difficult. Still, they predicted that by 2030, there will be four times the number of Level 4 autonomous robotaxis around the world than there were taxis last year.
"The very high R&D costs involved for robotaxis or Level 4 trucks hinder speed of adoption in terms of coverage, but also in delivering ROI," Jonathan Davenport, research director at Gartner, wrote. "This is ironic given that one of the main advantages associated with autonomous drive is reducing operational costs of transportation."
In a [13]blog post in 2019, Microsoft laid out a strategy that steered away from buying self-driving technologies or building its own cars. Instead, the goal is to sell companies in the industry its Azure cloud as well as AI, edge, and Internet of Things services.
[14]Oh, no: The electric cars at CES are getting all emotional
[15]US postal service electrifyies its next-gen delivery fleet
[16]Tesla recalls 40k cars over patch that broke power steering
[17]Founder of zero-emissions truck venture Nikola found guilty of $1b fraud
[18]Foxconn shows off pair of EVs, boasts of bulk orders for last year's model
The company also has a program to help smaller businesses and startups in the space.
"We partner across the industry," Sanjay Ravi, general manager of the automotive, mobility, and transportation industry, wrote in the post, noting partnerships with such companies as VW, Audi, LG Electronics, and Linker Networks. "We are not in the business of making vehicles or delivering end mobility as a service offerings."
In 2021, Microsoft joined GM, Honda, and others in a $2 billion equity investment in Cruise, an autonomous-vehicle subsidiary of GM. Cruise is using Azure services in developing its technologies.
Such investments give Microsoft standing in the self-driving car space, but also brings in business for itself. As part of the investment agreement, Azure became GM's preferred public cloud provider. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/microsoft-invest-autonomous-trucking-startup-gatik-sources-2023-01-04/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y7hTsEeMYkdF1bFqE44RAQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y7hTsEeMYkdF1bFqE44RAQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y7hTsEeMYkdF1bFqE44RAQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/gatik-ai/company_financials
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y7hTsEeMYkdF1bFqE44RAQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/28/waymo_daimler_ai/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/05/qualcomm_automotive_soc_ces/
[9] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/electronics-show-returns-realism-self-150000859.html
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/04/tesla_driver_slept_as_autopilot/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y7hTsEeMYkdF1bFqE44RAQAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-02-17-gartner-identifies-top-five-automotive-technology-trends-for-2022
[13] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2019/09/08/microsoft-expands-its-automotive-partner-ecosystem-to-power-the-future-of-mobility/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/06/ces_ev_concept_cars/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/20/usps_electric_trucks/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/08/40k_teslas_recalled_due_to/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/19/nikola_founder_fraud/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/foxconn_ev_expansion/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Thanks for your offer Clippy, that was helpful but we decided that everything would be a lot easier to just put the truck contents on a train for delivery to the local area. Lower carbon costs for the train transit and less traffic on the roads so that will help the climate too.
Microsoft and cars - no thanks
With their approach to quality control on their software - as evidenced by the constant breaking of Windows updates, I can only imaging the fun that owners would have not knowing if their car will start today, or if I'll suddenly have to pull over mid journey for 20 minutes whilst critical updates (candy crush or similar) is installed.
Then there will be the problem with the user interface, things will keep moving for no apparent reason, today we have decided to move the main user interface screen from centre in the dashboard to behind the light cluster in the boot. Next week it will be under the front wheel.
And of course, we've all seen the Microsoft vs General motors "If cars were like computers" joke from years ago which seems very appropriate right now. Perhaps this is about to become a reality, just with a different person running Microsoft today. Here's a copy I located on-line, not sure who the original author was.
At a recent computer exposition, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: “If General Motors had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”
In response to Bill’s comments, GM issued a press release stating: “If General Motors had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason, you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5 Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “General Protection Fault” warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10 You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.
Re: Microsoft and cars - no thanks
Cute as this post is, Microsoft wants the IP (Patents) to make money, not put out an actual product of their own. Why innovate when you can tax an innovator using your patent forever.
Re: Microsoft and cars - no thanks
I came to this comment section fully expecting to see this meme resurface and the very first comment pays off :)
Re: 10 You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.
This is factually correct in some cars otherwise MS can go pound sand.
For a $10M investment to make headlines here it must be a slow news day.
Now if it were $10B it would be news because as Elon the Almighty is finding out FSD is a lot harder and considerably more expensive than most 'C' level bozos think...
Flashback
Long long ago, MS was willing to let anyone pirate their OS because it meant they'd probably pick up other far more expensive MS software*.
All these deals feel like a similar play is in operation to get more clients onto Azure hoping the 'migration has risks' attitude will prevail again.
* Compilers initially, that created programs to run on either DOS or XENIX, then it was the Office & DB applications they really wanted to sell.
Re: Flashback
Same with Adobe. Kids pirating Photoshop was good for them, because a small percentage of those kids would end up becoming graphic designers at firms which couldn't afford the risk of pirating software. So they'd insist that the full Adobe Suite was necessary for their job, and every new version as it came out.
RIP my software budget, because what the marketing department wanted...
Needs 5 minutes to start up
> Microsoft is reportedly considering investing $10 million in autonomous vehicle startup Gatik
So will their products now stop at inopportune (and frequent) times to install trivial updates?
And take far too long to switch off once you get to your destination?
And every time you want to look in the rear view mirror, you have to wait until all the advertisements it is displaying, have finished
Re: Needs 5 minutes to start up
When I hit the dashboard with my clipboard I want you to brake as if a child had run out into the road
......Installing updates 0% .....
Driving license renewal due soon...
...wondering if I should bother and just give up driving as the roads might be about to become something akin to a scene from Mad Max!
Huh?
They're throwing ten million at a company that has otherwise managed to raise around seven hundred million.
This isn't an investment, it's a cheap bribe consideration to promote the use of their cloud/tech services.
Er, no...
No. Gatik has raised $121.6M, and Microsoft will add $10M. The "valuation" of a startup is no different than the valuation of a public company. #-of-shares-outstanding x Price per share paid by the last buyer of shares. So if in fact Microsoft pays $10M for some shares, the valuation will be $700M, but the company will have only raised $131.6M.
Math - if you don't understand it, you probably should not be in tech.
Re: Er, no...
There's maths, then there's the sort of 'maths' that says that a company that makes no money is 'worth' $bignum (or that the price of crypto will always go up).
Economics has a somewhat arms-length relationship with maths.
Chump change
Given the sums being spent in this area, an investment of this size hardly counts, though it might in the form of credits for processing on Azure. Self-driving vehicles, especially trucks, require, pace Steve Balmer, telemetry, telemetry, telemetry from existing vehicles. This gives incumbents and their partners a pretty good advantage and they're already including it in their products.
Ha
Whole new meaning to 'the truck has crashed'
Who?
Who are Microsoft?
Did you mean Microturd?
Hello. I'm Clippy. It looks like you're trying to turn around. Would you like me to stuff your truck through the centre reservation crash barrier?