Driverless vehicle development sets ablaze a bonfire of billions of dollarsBy David Welch / BloombergAutonomous vehicle companies and suppliers have collectively spent about US$75 billion developing self-driving technology, with scant sign of meaningful revenue emerging from robo-car services after all that cash incineration. Photo: ReutersCruise LLC, owned by General Motors Co (GM), raised money at a roughly US$30 billion valuation early last year. GM chief executive Mary Barra dismissed Cruise counterpart Dan Ammann late last year. TuSimple replaced founder and chief executive Lu Cheng (呂程) in March, and its general counsel James Mullen resigned last month. While there was a test driver at the wheel, the human ceded to the robot 94 percent of the time, Kodiak chief executive and founder Don Burnette said.
