Detroit automakers and Silicon Valley app-makers increase collaboration

Detroit is teaching Silicon Valley a thing or two about technology in the arena it knows best: cars.

An article on MSN details all the ways the auto industry has grown and modernized since the Big Three went through reduced market share and bankruptsy. General Motors, for example, invested $500 million in the ride-share app Lyft and is one of the leaders in autonomous vehicle design.

Auto sales are up across the board for 2016 as well.

Meanwhile, write Matthew DeBord, “Silicon Valley has started to encounter some investor turbulence. Startups with hefty valuations don’t see IPOs as a way to pay back their investors. That leaves getting acquired as an option, but a level of saturation with social networking and apps might have set in.”

This has resulted in a surprising collaboration between auto and app makers. Perhaps though, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, writes DeBord. “Detroit was the Silicon Valley of the early 20th century, a hotbed of entrepreneurship, fascinated with the most high-tech contraption of the time—the automobile.”