General Motors and Honda are teaming up on self-driving vehicle technology as big automakers and tech giants race to develop the next generation of personal transportation.

Japan’s Honda will invest $2.75 billion in the autonomous vehicle unit run by the US’s General Motors, called GM Cruise, which is considered a leader in the infant industry.

The goal, the companies said, is to develop an autonomous vehicle that can be produced at a high volume and deployed globally. They will also explore commercial ways to use the Cruise network around the world.

The partnership comes as the main players in the autonomous vehicle space shift their focus from developing the technology to figuring out how to make the systems safer and more affordable.

Teaming up is a way to add a layer of safety, with some groups using one company’s software to operate a vehicle and a partner’s software to act as a backup, said Sam Abuelsamid, Navigant Research analyst. “As companies move from the research phase into the production phase, there’s a lot of additional complexity that has to be added to those already complex systems,” he said.

Ride-hailing giant Uber announced in August a partnership with Toyota to develop autonomous vehicles. Other partnerships include BMW with Fiat Chrysler, chipmaker Intel and visual recognition software maker Mobileye and German automaker Daimler AG with supplier Bosch to develop autonomous taxis.

Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst with Autotrader, believes the partnership between GM and Honda is critical in the development of such advanced technology because it requires huge investments that have little promise of a quick payoff.

Honda will make an immediate investment of $750 million, and spend $2 billion over 12 years on the project.

“Honda chose to collaborate with Cruise and General Motors based on their leadership in autonomous and electric vehicle technology and our shared vision of a zero-emissions and zero-collision world,” said Seiji Kuraishi, an executive vice president at Honda.

Honda and GM are already partnering on fuel cell vehicles and announced in June that they are developing batteries for electric vehicles.