Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Lunar Roving Vehicle was used to extend the range of Apollo astronauts on the lunar surface during Apollo missions 15, 16, and 17 in 1971 and 1972. Before the rover, crews were limited to short walks around the landing site; with it, astronauts could travel miles from the Lunar Module to collect samples and conduct scientific observations.
Boeing was selected as the prime contractor on the 28th of October 1969, with General Motors Defense Research Laboratories in Santa Barbara, California, supplying the mobility system including the wheels, motors, and suspension. The initial contract was worth $19 million, though final costs reached $38 million.
Apollo 15's rover covered 17.25 miles, Apollo 16's covered 16.50 miles, and Apollo 17's covered 22.30 miles, including the longest single traverse of 12.5 miles. Eugene Cernan set an unofficial lunar land-speed record of 11.2 mph during the Apollo 17 mission.
The three flight rovers were left on the Moon at their landing sites: LRV-1 at Hadley-Apennine, LRV-2 at Descartes, and LRV-3 at Taurus-Littrow. LRV-4, never flown, is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The rover was powered by two 36-volt silver-zinc batteries developed by Eagle-Picher, each with a charge capacity of 121 ampere-hours, providing a total combined range of 57 miles. The batteries were non-rechargeable and passively cooled using wax thermal capacitor packages and reflective radiating surfaces.
Each rover was folded into three hinged sections and stored in the Lunar Module's Quadrant 1 bay, with the underside of the chassis facing outward. It was deployed on the surface using a system of pulleys, braked reels, ropes, and cloth tapes, with most of the deployment sequence automated once the rover was released from the bay.