This Startup Says It Can Make Any Car Autonomous for $10,000

Cruise Automotive

Google gets all the love when it comes to self-driving cars, and all the biggest automakers are well on the way to selling us autonomous vehicles. But a startup run by a bunch of MIT grads plans to make almost any car on the road autonomous, and do it a whole lot faster—and cheaper—than those guys.

For a mere $10,000, Cruise Automotive will install its RP1 highway autopilot system on any car, as long as it is a 2012 or newer Audi A4 or S4. Although company CEO Kyle Vogt says the tech will work with any car, Cruise started with a single model. He promises Cruise offers greater autonomous capability than what’s available from automakers offering things like adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning systems, and it will be widely available years before Google’s car.

“We’re right in the middle” of the two approaches, he says.

Vogt says he’s wanted to build a self-driving car since he was in middle school. As an MIT undergrad, he participated in the 2007 DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle race. His team’s entry relied upon servers piled into the bed of a pickup truck, which is not an approach that works with most cars. In the years since, the technology has evolved and miniaturized. The public has warmed to the idea of cars that drive themselves. And the regulatory atmosphere is pondering the opportunities and problems posed by non-human drivers.

“The timing is right for this,” Vogt says.

Before it can get to market, however, the technology needs to be properly legalized. Nearly half of states have passed, voted down, or are considering bills concerning automated driving, according to Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society. The current rules are something of “a moving target,” Vogt says, promising that Cruise will meet any regulations that are created.