In a notable development, General Motors GM-owned autonomous self-driving technology unit, Cruise, announced that it intends to expand its driverless ride service to Phoenix, ARI, and Austin, TX, in the next three months.
The company noted that its operations in Arizona and Texas will initially be on a small scale but aims to churn out revenues.
In 2020, Cruise carried out autonomous testing in Arizona using a fleet of autonomous and electric vehicles, in collaboration with Walmart WMT, an investor and partner in the company. The present initiative will build off this partnership with Walmart.
However, Texas is a new market for the company as it has yet to deploy any vehicles, infrastructure or operations in Austin and hasn’t mapped the city. The company is eager to successfully make inroads in the new city and aim for revenue generation.
Presently the company offers a wide range of robotaxi services in San Francisco. It operates daytime rides in its autonomous vehicles (AVs) with safety drivers. On top of that, it runs a nighttime chargeable ride-hailing service in the city using the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles. The service was started in June, after quite a few years of effort. Cruise operates as many as 70 driverless AVs concurrently in San Francisco and has plans to double or triple the number by the end of the year.
Riding on the successful launch in San Francisco, Cruise set its mind on expanding to new cities.
The upcoming two cities already have an AV presence with other players operating their services. This will indeed leverage the company. Interestingly, it took Cruise 33 months to obtain its permits for commercial launch in San Francisco, but a mere three weeks to get the same for the next cities. General Motors, being its parent company, gives it an edge over other players because GM’s expertise in manufacturing vehicles on a large scale goes a long way. These combined will make Cruise a gainer.
Cruise also noted that along with General Motors, it would soon ramp up manufacturing of its purpose-built AV, the Origin, to enter new markets.
In July, Cruise began mapping Dubai to prepare for the launch of robotaxis in 2023, a plan that was announced long back in April 2021. Cruise has sent two of its autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EVs to map the city. Although there is not much clarity on how the Dubai venture will look, the city is geared up for the launch, aggressively integrating self-driving transport across all modes of transport.
Even though the adoption and execution of AV technology have been slow, Cruise looks optimistic and aims to generate $1 billion in revenue or half its current level of annual investment from General Motors. This will be beneficial for the loss-making company.
Shares of General Motors have lost 17.3% in the past year against its industry’s 5% rise.
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Zacks Rank & Key Picks
GM carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), currently.
Some better-ranked players in the auto space include BorgWarner BWA and Tesla Inc. TSLA, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
BorgWarner has an expected earnings rate of 2.9% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has been revised 0.7% upward in the past 30 days.
BorgWarner’s earnings beat the Zacks growth Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters. BWA pulled off a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 29.45%, on average. The stock has declined 10.9% in the past year.
Tesla has an expected earnings growth rate of 76.5% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has been revised 1% upward in the past 30 days.
Tesla’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters. TSLA pulled off a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 32.17%, on average. The stock has increased 18.7% in the past year.
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