Cruise has released a video showing one of its driverless robotaxis giving a ride to company founder Kyle Vogt on public streets in San Francisco.
Kyle Vogt
The video, which was posted to the Cruise YouTube channel this week, shows Cruise founder and CTO Kyle Vogt ordering the first-ever fully driverless ride using one of the company’s Chevy Bolt EV-based robotaxis. Vogt then comments on how “normal” the driverless ride seems before thanking Cruise employees for their work and congratulating them for reaching the milestone.
“That was ride #1. That was so smooth,” Vogt says after climbing out of the driverless AV. “So cool, it just works. That was amazing, I don’t know what to say. Thank you Cruise. You guys made this happen.”
1) Monday night was a night I’ll never forget. I’m still speechless. I got to take the first ride, by anyone, ever, in a *driverless* robotaxi on the streets of San Francisco.
This was officially ride #1 for @Cruise. Full story and vids below.https://t.co/GDjVcvMrvK
— Kyle Vogt (@kvogt) November 3, 2021
Cruise obtained a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles last month that allows it to offer rides to passengers at nighttime in certain parts of San Francisco at speeds of up to 30 mph. It must obtain a separate permit from the California Public Utilities Commission to begin charging passengers for rides, which it has not yet received.
The San Francisco-based company, which GM owns a majority stake in, hopes to eventually launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service using its Cruise Origin AV. The driverless robotaxi is set to enter production at the automaker’s Factory Zero plant sometime in 2022 and will hit public roads shortly after.
The Origin will likely be deployed in San Francisco in the U.S. at first and will also be put into service in Dubai thanks to a partnership between GM and Dubai’s Road and Transit Authority. Additionally, Honda announced in January that it would begin testing the Origin in Japan this year, with the goal of deploying it on public roads in the country sometime in the future. Honda invested $750 million in Cruise in 2018 and will invest another $12 billion in the company through to 2030.
Watch Vogt take the first-ever Cruise driverless ride in the video embedded below.
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Comments
impressive. it was able to navigate the streets of san francisco devoid of cars and pedestrians. gm’s vision of zero congestion and accidents is coming true … at 3am!!!
Pretty slick. I know this car has special sensors, cameras, and maps of San Francisco, but I could see this quickly spreading to other cities and shrinking the technology until it’s available in every car. It would certainly take the stress out of city traffic where people make a lot of dumb decisions.
It’s cool for some people and I’m glad those that want it might get it some day. But I’ve seen to many sci-fi movies I don’t want a machine driving for me.
You will need this when you are too old to drive and no one will drive for you.
Yawn.