If you want an idea of the money-making potential of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, consider the news that came out of South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) announced it was buying Cruise Automation, a small start-up developing kits to turn existing vehicles into self-driving cars. Cruise was previously valued at $90 million, but GM is paying over $1 billion for it. The price is even more striking considering the slump that many Silicon Valley companies are experiencing.
Now, it may be awhile before we're fully up to speed on the self-driving highway. But semi-autonomous cars are already here with features like adaptive cruise control and lane assist. Soon, 10% of all cars will ship with some self-driving capabilities.
And SXSW showed these aren't just for the high-end market, as Honda announced a Civic with some autonomous features for around $20,000.
Our revved-up tech and auto experts Eric Bleeker and Rex Moore took in all the self-driving goodness at SXSW, and have more in the video below.
