Just saw the article stating GM and Honda announced a battery partnership. Seems pretty obvious what is happening. Alphabet (Google) through its Waymo division sought out Ford for a partnership on Autonomy but Ford wanted Alphabet to assume too much of the risk. So Alphabet bought 62000 low quality FCA PHEVs to kick start its Waymo fleet but clearly wanted something more like a Honda Odyssey and given that Toyota partnered with Amazon and Apple with VW and Tesla with Panasonic (Tesla goes its own way) it choose to partner with Honda, a jewel among automakers- except for the fool cell stuff. Out of this Honda gets Alphabet's Waymo top level proven autonomy and Google gets access to better vehicles. Now for GM, its Cruise stuff seems to be hot air, the recent SoftBank buy just reinforces that for me. I believe it will end up just pure Waymo stuff that they will try to hide from the public. Cruise is a feint to fool stock holders. All they've shown seems to be vapor ware despite announcements that they will put it on all Cadillac or saying they will go steering wheel free. But this announcement of a partnership between Honda and GM makes sense because it suggest what that Alphabet (Waymo) is driving this and wants a couple things out of it including LG Chem batteries in its Honda produced electric minivans and it may want to see if a GM pared down further by the reductions in production volume autonomy will force on GM will in the process produce a good enough clone of a Honda electric minivan with added Waymo autonomy to justify the cut rate purchase of the firm. By that time GM may be reduced to producing an autonomy fleet vehicle or a small range of them and a few at most autonomy cars for personal ownership. It will be a bankruptcy purchase. Waymo will get some workable factories already tooled to improved Honda designs with LG Chem contracts for a price of picking up pieces from a bankruptcy fire sale or even better forced merger to avoid bankruptcy- perfect Saturn style end to biggest perp in all of ICE history (remember lead in the gas and the results?) Also a perfect end with a Silicon Valley firm killing off an antebellum relic.
