People who use wheelchairs in Houston, Texas will soon be able to get a free ride from GM autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise to the Numotion wheelchair repair facility there and then back home, thanks to a new partnership between the two companies.
Cruise is initiating a six-month pilot program with available wheelchair-accessible vehicles or WAVs, making fixes to their wheelchair much faster and easier to get thanks to the new alliance.
While Cruise is an autonomous vehicle company, the WAVs will be human-driven with drivers who get special instruction on how to help people using wheelchairs. The vehicles used are Chevy Traverse crossovers modified to give wheelchair access and given the distinctive red and white paint livery of Cruise.
The chief executive of Numotion, Mike Swinford, says the partnership will “offer a seamless and convenient solution for wheelchair users in the Houston area.” He added that available WAV rides are “alleviating a significant stressor and providing a way for our customers to receive their service and repair faster.”
Cruise president Craig Glidden, meanwhile, remarked that “accessibility is core to our mission,” noting that “it’s about empowering people in the community with greater mobility and independence, while also building learnings to better our service in the future.”
The GM robotaxi subsidiary has offered community-service style operations in the Houston area. In October, it partnered with the Houston Food Bank to deliver approximately 6,000 meals to expectant mothers in Houston. For this task, it utilized its Chevy Bolt EV-based AV autonomous vehicles rather than the human-driven Chevy Traverse units earmarked for the latest initiative.
The rides are offered to wheelchair users free of charge and will eventually be available in at least 90 zip codes within the Houston metropolitan area. Rather than waiting for in-home repair service, these Numotion customers will be able to request a ride to the repair location through a Cruise scheduling system.
Two Traverse crossovers will provide the initial rides, using specialty equipment added through upfitting by wheelchair-access specialists BraunAbility.
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