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Cruise Robotaxi Rival Waymo Opening Rides Throughout San Francisco

Alphabet’s self-driving subsidiary Waymo, which serves as a direct rival to General Motors’ Cruise, has announced that it has opened its robotaxi rides to all San Francisco users.

According to a report from NBC New York, the autonomous driving company has expanded its self-driving ride-hailing service to everyone in San Francisco, as it had previously been limited to a select number of areas. Announced via blog post, Waymo claims that nearly 300,000 folks have signed up for the service since a waitlist was opened.

Photo of Waymo robotaxi.

“We’re committed to growing our service gradually and responsibly,” Alphabet autonomous driving subsidiary Waymo stated in the blog post. “We work closely with city and state officials, first responders, and advocates for road safety to ensure our service helps local communities gain access to reliable, safe, environmentally friendly transportation and has a positive impact on mobility.”

It’s worth noting that this is the second city-wide rollout for Waymo since it opened its Phoenix, Arizona robotaxi service back in 2020. Beyond that, limited ride-hailing services currently operate in Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas.

Photo of Cruise AV unit.

Meanwhile, there are still no Cruise AV robotaxi units roaming the streets of San Francisco as of the time of this writing. However, this could change as the self-driving company recently paid a $112,500 penalty for the mishandling of its response to the October 2023 incident. Cruise also agreed to send collision reports to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for any future incidents.

Notably, this fine consists of $7,500 for each of the 15 days during which Cruise omitted to share specific details about said incident.

In the interim, The General’s autonomous driving subsidiary has been operating in limited capacity in Houston, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona and Dallas, Texas, where a driver sits at the ready to take over the wheel should the need arise. As Cruise continues to rebuild public trust in its robotaxi technology, it will likely look to return to the streets of California.

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  1. More robocars on the streets of San Francisco, SFFD and SFPD are going to love that.

    Reply

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