Cruise Self Driving Cars Autonomous Vehicles Driverless Rides & Delivery

Table Of Content

• Cruise robotaxi service is quickly expanding
• California: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego
• Robotaxi testing and permits
• Texas: Austin, Houston and Dallas
• Robotaxis score a huge victory in California with approval to operate 24/7
• Cruise robotaxis now run all day in San Francisco, with public access after 10 p.m.
• Rider FAQs

Indeed, advocates from the disability community have voiced their support for AV development at many crucial moments, most recently testifying in favor of Cruise and Waymo’s application to the state of California for expanded robotaxi service. Cruise has not been transparent about these things and declined to answer my questions about them. It seems they may get questions now from the DMV that they can’t decline.

Cruise robotaxi service is quickly expanding

Cruise agreed to reduce its fleet by half while the incident was under investigation. The reveal of the newly accessible robotaxi is a major step toward fulfilling the dream of people with vision, hearing, and mobility impairments, who have long held out hope that autonomous vehicles represent a new way of getting around. Technological issues aside, what really put Cruise in hot water late last year was its response to the incident. Regulators accused the company of withholding information about the crash, only sharing that a Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been flung into its path after first being struck by a human-driven vehicle. That’s why, when it comes to serious events with irreparable harm, like serious injuries, teams set a much higher bar before they took the safety drivers out. They have worked to do better than the risk levels of average drivers, even though the math says one should start far earlier.

California: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego

General Motors subsidiary Cruise has just expanded its commercial robotaxi service to cover almost all of San Francisco — and more cities are just on the horizon. (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co.’s Cruise LLC autonomous vehicle unit will tell investors this week that it sees a path for its ride-hailing business to reach $50 billion in revenue as it ramps up over the next couple of years, people familiar with the matter said. In late July, Cruise announced plans to expand its robotaxi service to Nashville.

General Motors robotaxi unit Cruise seeks firm road ahead - Automotive News

General Motors robotaxi unit Cruise seeks firm road ahead.

Posted: Thu, 21 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Robotaxi testing and permits

In early August, the company expanded its radius in the Phoenix area by 20x to include Tempe and Scottsdale. For “power users” initially, and then will roll out to members of the general public. But the CPUC said that Waymo and Cruise have met all their obligations laid out in the state’s regulatory framework covering autonomous vehicle testing and commercial operation. The company's paid, driverless service is a step towards broader commercial deployment of a long-promised autonomous alternative to ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft in the U.S. Kyle Vogt, CEO and founder of GM-owned autonomous vehicle company Cruise, announced Tuesday that the company's robotaxis are now running around the clock in San Francisco.

Texas: Austin, Houston and Dallas

They include what Cruise calls a "power user" cohort of riders, and "Cruisers" who are employees of the company. The vehicles will be used to create maps and gather road information without autonomous systems engaged, according to Cruise, including how vehicles react to intersections, construction zones and road signs. Cruise first unveiled the Origin robotaxi in early 2020 as a bus-like vehicle built for the sole purpose of shuttling people around in a city autonomously. But since then, the company has been mired in a lengthy regulatory process before it can begin mass production.

The company also consulted with its advisory council on accessibility, which includes dozens of advocates. A big part of Cruise’s strategy moving forward, as outlined in Tuesday’s blog post, involves reforming and establishing updated incident response and crisis management protocols to ensure more efficient and transparent responses in the future. The company says it will also work on improved engagement with first responders to facilitate trainings in each precinct it plans to operate in.

The maps of problems published by the San Francisco officials show many more Cruise incidents. Cruise, however claims this is not true, and that the larger number of incidents with their vehicles is due to the fact they are driving far more miles in San Francisco than Waymo. (Waymo drives more of its miles in Phoenix.) Waymo points out most of their miles have been during the daytime, when traffic is much more complex, and Cruise began with permission to do passenger service only at night. Neither company has provided precise numbers on the difference between their operations. Waymo and Cruise were approved to operate their paid robotaxi services 24/7 in San Francisco after a contentious six-hour public hearing in which residents voiced their support and opposition to the vehicles.

“Phase 1 is to familiarize our fleet with additional, diverse road conditions while collecting data,” the company said at the time in a tweet. Cruise confirmed that it’s testing robotaxis in a small city in Japan in partnership with Honda. Honda has stated a goal to launch a mobility-as-a-service in Japan using Origins by mid-decade. Following the incident, Cruise reached out to several government agencies, including the California DMV, the California Public Utilities Commission that regulates commercial ridehail, and NHTSA. The company shared the video from its vehicle of the incident with investigators and is answering their questions, Lindow said.

A woman entered a crosswalk at nighttime and was hit by two cars, the second of which was the Cruise vehicle. First, a Nissan Sentra "tragically struck and propelled the pedestrian into the path of the AV," Cruise said in a description of the incident. GM’s presentation will include updates on the automaker’s electric vehicle plans, its SuperCruise driver-assistance feature and how the company will use its Ultify software platform to generate more revenue from app-based services in cars.

One might wonder; can’t this math justify almost any amount of risk today, including crazy amounts? We humans, as it turns out, are not utilitarians who simply add up the math. We sometimes need our governments to do that, to focus on the good of society over the individual, but we’re not very good at that, and we’re really unable to do it when talking about the really serious events. My own anecdotal experience riding in the vehicles bears up a claim of superior quality for Waymo.

While no single ride, or even score of rides, can form a judgement that a vehicle is safe—only statistics can do that—a single ride can evidence problems and any problems are a red flag. The company charges for delivery services in Phoenix and gets some licensing revenue from Honda Motor Co. Cruise Chief Executive Officer Dan Ammann is expected to say that the company plans to charge for rides as soon as next year and could expand in 2023 if Cruise gets the green light from California regulators.

The vehicle needs a government exemption because it has no steering wheel or manual controls. The company is working toward submitting a permit application with the agency. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted 3-to-1 in favor of allowing the two companies to operate their vehicles at any hour of the day throughout the city of San Francisco while charging for rides. San Francisco is the city in which Cruise has the most vehicles deployed.

It is where it has been field testing its commercial service of paid robotaxi trips. And a suspension could seriously impact the company’s ability to scale to new markets. GM-backed Cruise is “just days away” from regulatory approval to begin mass production of its fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, the company’s CEO, Kyle Vogt, said at an investor conference Thursday. The October incident wasn’t the first time Cruise’s technology has caused problems.