Cruise, GM’s driverless car company, hires Pereira O’ Dell as agency

Cruise, the autonomous driving company majority-owned by General Motors, has chosen Pereira O’ Dell as its agency following a competitive pitch. “Cruise is excited to be working with Pereira O'Dell in 2022 as we move from R&D into commercialization," a spokeswoman for Cruise told Ad Age. The agency will begin its work for the company next year, confirmed Natalie Nymark, who leads Pereira O' Dell on the West Coast. Cruise is one of the world’s best-funded automated tech companies in the world having raised about $11 billion as of today. Some notable investors include Microsoft, Honda, Softbank, and Walmart. Its latest fundraising round, which included Walmart, brought the car company’s valuation up to more than $30 billion, according to CNBC. The company has been clear in its intentions of being a robot-taxi service. In June it received a permit to deploy prototype autonomous vehicles that could transport the public without charging passengers. Cruise is also gearing up to start a commercial ride-sharing service in Dubai in 2023. This year it applied for permits needed to start charging for autonomous rides and delivery in San Francisco, according to Auto News. However, Cruise isn’t alone in the race for driverless car supremacy, which has been a heated one. Cruise is competing with companies including Alphabet’s Waymo, Ford-and Volkswagen-back Argo AI, Amazon’s Zoox, and Hyundai Motor-affiliated Motional for large-scale commercialization of on-demand robotaxis over the next few years. In July Cruise filed a trademark infringement lawsuit to stop Ford from using the name "BlueCruise" to market its hands-free driving technology. Last month, Ford retaliated by filing a request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to have GM's "Cruise" and "Super Cruise" trademarks rescinded. Ford also filed a motion to dismiss GM’s lawsuit, claiming that the term “cruise” has been in “ubiquitous use” over the past 50 years to refer to driver-assist features. Ford intends to make its BlueCruise feature available later this year through a software update in some of its current model F-150 pickups and Ford Mustang Mach-E electric SUVs. Cruise, which has nearly 2,000 employees, has brought on some key executives from the airline industry. In January the San Francisco-based company hired Gil West to be its chief operating officer, following his retirement from Delta Air Lines where he’d also served as COO and senior EVP. Also recently, Cruise brought on Anthony Gregory, who had been with Southwest Airlines, and former Virgin Atlantic chief operating officer Phil Maher to serve as VPs of market development and central operations.

Cruise, GM’s driverless car company, hires Pereira O’ Dell as agency

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