Learn about the nature of the dispute between Ford and General Motors over self-driving

Ford filed a motion with the US District Court in San Francisco to dismiss a lawsuit from rival General Motors over Ford's BlueCruise self-driving feature last month, and GM filed a trademark infringement lawsuit claiming that the BlueCruise name was soon Super Cruise, the name for the hands-free driving technology from General Motors, which it introduced in 2017, as well as its subsidiary Cruise.

Ford said in its movement that the term cruise has been ubiquitously used for the past 50 years to refer to driver assistance features, Ford argued in its complaint that "consumers understand the word 'cruise' to refer to A feature in their car that performs part of the driving task or helps them drive, and they don't associate this term with any one company or brand.

In the suit filed on July 23, GM said the two companies had engaged in lengthy discussions over the name but were unable to reach an agreement. GM claimed in its complaint that Ford knew exactly what it was doing, adding that if it wanted to Ford is building a brand new and unique that they could have done so easily without using the word Cruze.

Ford announced BlueCruise as the name for its hands-free driver assistance feature in April and said it would start pushing the feature via an over-the-air software update to identify vehicles this year.

A Ford spokesperson said in an email to The Verge that the company deemed GM's brand claims "baseless and absurd, adding that drivers for decades had understood what cruise control is, every automaker offers it, and cruises. Rumor, shorthand for such features In addition to seeking to overturn GM's case, Ford has petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office to revoke GM's Cruise and Super Cruze trademarks, the spokesperson added. to comment yet.