GM self-driving unit Cruise to access $5 billion credit line

BERKELEY — General Motors’ majority owned Cruise self-driving car subsidiary said Tuesday it would gain access to a multi-year, $5 billion line of credit with the automaker’s finance arm to finance its purchase of Origin vehicles starting in early 2023.

“This bumps up Cruise’s total war chest to over $10 billion as we enter commercialization,” Dan Ammann, CEO of Cruise, which also counts Softbank and Honda as minority investors, said in a blog post.

Self-driving startups are racing to build war chests, as developing and scaling up the technology is expensive and takes time.

This past month GM began assembly of the first of about 100 pre-production Cruise Origin all-electric vehicles that will be built this summer for validation testing, Cruise said.

Cruise is gearing up to start a commercial ride-sharing service in Dubai in 2023, while it has this year applied for permits needed to start charging for autonomous rides and delivery in San Francisco.