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GM Partners With Roomba For Cruise Origin Autonomous Street Sweepers

Early last month, GM decided to send new units of the fully autonomous Cruise Origin robotaxi into storage following major budget cuts to the company’s self-driving technology subsidiary, Cruise. Originally, the all-electric Cruise Origin was expected to offer riders a fully autonomous ride-hailing service, but now, GM Authority has learned The General has opted to repurpose the AVs for something else entirely, namely sanitation and public works.

According to GM Authority sources, General Motors will partner with the iRobot robotics company, maker of the popular Roomba autonomous household vacuum cleaner, to repurpose the Cruise Origins it has built for street sweeping duties.

The Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle.

Insider sources indicate that the new Cruise Origin street sweepers will initially enter service under a pilot program in Greektown, a commercial and entertainment district in Detroit. Although an exact date for the program launch is still in discussion, sources say that iRobot will provide debris-sucking and vacuum hardware, as well as the company’s advanced dust-filtering technology. The new all-electric street sweepers will also incorporate the Roomba branding, which is well-recognized among tech-saavy consumers.

Initial product descriptions include an inflatable 360-degree rubber bumper fitted around the perimeter of the Cruise autonomous vehicles, which will provide an added layer of protection for parked vehicles and curbs as the street sweepers perform their duties.

Cruise Origins headed to iRobot for debris-sucking and vacuum hardware upfitting

Although Cruise has yet to formally announce the new project, GM has taken to Twitter, formerly X, to post a cryptic message regarding Cruise Origin, stating that the company was hoping to “dust off” the AVs currently in storage.

In case it wasn’t obvious at this point, we were just having a little fun. April Fools! Stay sharp, because we may have more April Fools articles coming your way. And oh yeah, don’t forget to subscribe to GM Authority for more GM April Fools articles, GM Cruise Origin news, GM Cruise news, GM autonomous vehicle news, GM technology news, GM electric vehicle news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.

Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Cool. Now they’ll just turn and go the other way after hitting someone. Then come back, shift 2 feet to the left, and take the head off for good measure.

    Reply
    1. This one is probably the best april fools gag in the car world this year. You made me laugh, Mr. Lopez.

      Reply
  2. I mean, I know it’s an April Fools article, but it makes just about as much sense as whatever they’re ACTUALLY doing over at Cruise…

    Reply
    1. These vehicles might as well be scrapped since they can only run on private roads with NHTSA approval. They would require a lot of regulatory changes since they are not FMVSS compliant in any way. The Bolts are compliant vehicles.

      Reply
  3. About all they’re good for ..

    Reply
  4. This was a good one. With all the partnering companies are doing as the EV push has slowed, this article could easily have passed “the sniff test”

    Reply
  5. There is a future coming with great exiting and *another way* to dust!

    Reply

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