GM Plans Ride-Sharing Services, Purchases Sidecar Assets
General Motors announced it is preparing to launch its own ride-sharing service.
In order to jumpstart the new venture, the company has purchased technology by former ride-sharing company Sidecar. The technology allows passengers to request rides from Sidecar vehicles through their mobile phones, Fortune reports.
GM has also purchased most of Sidecar's assets and is taking on 20 of the company's employees.
The terms of the deal between GM and Sidecar are unknown, but a Bloomberg source said the buyout is less than the $39 million that Sidecar had raised over the years since forming as a startup.
GM Receives Sidecar Employees
Sidecar co-founder and chief technology officer Jahan Khanna is joining GM, but co-founder and CEO Sunil Paul will not be making the move.
"In connection with Sidecar ceasing operations, we can confirm that we have attracted Sidecar employees to be integrated into the GM urban mobility team and acquired certain related assets, for work on our global mobility programs. We have no further details to share at this time," a GM spokeswoman told Fortune.
Sidecar stopped its operations in December, after trying for years to compete with ride-sharing leaders Uber and Lyft. In 2015, the company shifted to offering deliveries to other companies.
Paul said at the time that even though Sidecar had shutdown its ride and delivery services, the company was not dead.
GM Spends $500 Million on Ride-Sharing
GM also just invested $500 million in Lyft earlier this month. The company said that they plan to develop their own self-driving cars, which they could add to Lyft's fleet of vehicles.
Beyond investing in Lyft, GM is working on its own brand of transportation services using GM cars. However, the services will not be exactly the same as Lyft's because GM does not want to compete with the recent investment.
GM President Daniel Ammann joined Lyft's board of directors and will head GM's transportation services program called Maven.
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