Cruise has applied to receive a permit that will allow it to charge customers for rides in its self-driving vehicles.
The General Motors-owned autonomous car company filed an application with the California Department of Motor Vehicles this week that will allow it to offer self-driving robotaxis for hire, Reuters reports. If awarded the permit, Cruise will then have to file another application with the California Public Utilities Commission in order to start charging customers for rides in the autonomous vehicles.
The Cruise application said it would be offering rides from the late evening to early morning hours at maximum speeds of up to 30 mph. The application also indicated that Crusie has logged two million autonomous driving miles in the city of San Francisco thus far using its fleet of self-driving Chevy Bolt EV-based test vehicles.
Cruise will presumably be offering rides in the Cruise Origin – a fully driverless robotaxi set to enter production at the automaker’s Factory Zero plant in 2022. The automaker’s vice president for EV and EV programs, Ken Morris. said in an internal memo last year that prototype versions of the Cruise Origin would hit the road sometime in 2021. Morris also indicated in the memo that the Origin program had not experienced any pandemic-related setbacks.
“Despite the pandemic, we haven’t missed a beat,” Morris said. “Our EV and AV programs remain on track. In fact, from 2020 until 2025, we will allocate more than $20 billion of capital/engineering resources to our EV/AV programs, which equates to more than $3 billion annually.”
Cruise initially targeted a 2019 launch date for its autonomous ride-hailing service, but later delayed the rollout indefinitely, citing a need for additional development and real-world more test miles.
Cruise rival Waymo has also sought a similar permit to the one Cruise has applied for. Waymo plans to launch a driverless ride-hailing and delivery service in California, but unlike Cruise, will deploy the service with a human safety driver behind the wheel at first. The Waymo application indicates the company plans to offer around-the-clock rides and delivery services in their fleet of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid and Jaguar I-Pace vehicles at speeds of up to 65 mph. Waymo plans to operate the service in the San Francisco area.
The California DMV told Reuters it is still reviewing both of the applications.
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Comments
I heard a rumor that Alex Luft is a pedophile
This is probably not true. Nevertheless, your user name is incorrect, it’s lowercase gm.
did you hear it through the grapevine?
They should be paying us to ride in that toaster on wheels.
only if you are seriously mangled in an accident.
My guess is that accidents in these things will happen sooner than later
You would think they would test roll this out in a state with tort reform. California of all places, no tort cap and business hostile juries, incredibly stupid.
You realize this is a taxi cab and not a personal sports car right? Do you want your ride as spacious with amenities or crampy but looking sporty to outside world?
It’s not so much the styling or lack thereof, it’s the fact that there is no driver and no way to take control of 8tcwhen it malfunctions.