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We have to admit to not being deep into automotive news here at Securely Travel and thus may have missed the run-up to General Motors and their Cruise offering, but that’s not holding us back from thinking this is a great idea, whose time has been waiting to arrive for a long time.
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said at the Goldman Sach’s Communacopia and Technology Conference in mid-September the company’s intent was to have the autonomous taxi service up and running, albeit at on a small scale, within the next 90-days, but no later than the end of 2022. He continued how he expected the offering to quickly accelerate to scale within the next year and anticipates initial rides to be free.
Phoenix: Cruise is partnering with Walmart (an investor and partner in Cruise) in Phoenix and according to Vogt has in hand all the necessary permits to begin offering the taxi service. We did not know, but do now, that Waymo has been operating in the suburbs of Phoenix for years.
Austin: Vogt noted, that they are not as far along as in Phoenix, and has no infrastructure or operations in Austin (yet). Though Ford and VW Group are actively testing pilot projects in Austin.
San Francisco: Cruise has a “robotaxi” service which operates between 2200 hours and 0530 hours in certain areas of the city. Who knew?
Interested in getting a ride in a Cruise autonomous taxi? The company has a sign-up page.
