Cruise autonomous vehicle Wikipedia

Table Of Content

• Cruise’s driverless autonomous cars start giving rides to paying passengers
• Waymo, Cruise and Zoox Inch Forward Ahead of Tesla Joining Robotaxi Race
• Cruise Robotaxi Rides Will Be >$3/mile, But They’ll Get Better
• Interference with police and fire services
• Plus, a Faraday Future whistleblower case and humanoid robots in car factories
• GM’s Cruise Loses Its Self-Driving License in San Francisco After a Robotaxi Dragged a Person

Technological progress and establishing approvals for robotic driving have taken longer than anticipated, making revenue elusive for startups. Cruise had to back off plans to deploy robotaxis in 2019 because it needed more time for performance and safety checks. The timing for the planned announcement on fares makes sense for Cruise. The California Department of Motor Vehicles last week gave the company a permit to charge fees for autonomous vehicle services. That means Cruise can operate delivery services for a fee using its self-driving cars without a safety driver. All autonomous vehicle operators need approval from the Public Utility Commission to charge passengers for rides in the state.

Cruise’s driverless autonomous cars start giving rides to paying passengers

GM's Cruise driverless vehicles banned from California roads - Financial Times

GM's Cruise driverless vehicles banned from California roads.

Posted: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Taxis in a dense city like San Francisco during daytime traffic only average about 12 miles/hour, so the hourly fee will add about $2/mile to the price bringing it over $3/mile. You’ll do better late at night, which used to be the only time Cruise offered rides to the public. Cruise and Waymo have said that these unpredicted stops are infrequent and are the safest way to handle “edge case,” or unusual, situations. But the city asked the CPUC to slow the deployment of self-driving cars, and to force the companies to hand over more specific data on what the vehicles are doing on its streets. The controversy delayed the vote by two months, as commissioners gathered more information from city officials and the robotaxi companies themselves. In August, the San Francisco Fire Department told state officials that its employees experienced at least 55 incidents with self-driving cars since the beginning of 2023, including a handful in which fire officials report the cars delayed emergency responders.

Waymo, Cruise and Zoox Inch Forward Ahead of Tesla Joining Robotaxi Race

A better solution might be to implement ride pooling during surges. While Uber and Lyft have never had great success with their ride pool offerings, periods of high demand are exactly when ride pooling is easiest to do, as there are more people who can be pooled together without major inconvenience. Many people report that rides in Uber Pool added lots of delay for inadequate savings.

Cruise Robotaxi Rides Will Be >$3/mile, But They’ll Get Better

Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo self-driving vehicle unit is collecting fares in the Phoenix area and has a permit to operate autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties, the California DMV said last week. In public comments at the hearing today, and in others submitted in writing ahead of the vote, a number of residents and state and local groups said they believed the robotaxis held great promise for their communities. Some speakers said they believed autonomous vehicle technology would make streets safer, pointing out that robots never get drunk, tired, or distracted. Thirty-nine people died on San Francisco roads last year, the most since 2007.

GM's Cruise robotaxi service targeted in Justice Department inquiry into San Francisco collision - The Associated Press

GM's Cruise robotaxi service targeted in Justice Department inquiry into San Francisco collision.

Posted: Thu, 25 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Interference with police and fire services

It will have a few downsides, like short waits, and no easy ability to keep stuff in the car that takes you around (at least at the base fare) and it will be more expensive for certain activities, but otherwise it should offer a great suite of advantages. Naturally, at first, companies will try to sell this at a premium, but in time it will need to meet people’s needs for less — and it can. Cruise reports their costs have been dropping very rapidly, and in their quarterly report, indicated they hope to soon see costs hit $1/mile. That’s presumably a “cost of goods sold,” which is only recurring expenses that go up with every mile driven or day operating, not non-recurring expenses like their massive software development and testing costs. A business like a robotaxi needs a gross margin of at least 50%, so a $1/mile COGS suggests a $2/mile retail cost.

Now in Phoenix

It says Cruise did not disclose information about its car's subsequent “pull-over maneuver” that dragged the woman after the initial impact, and that the DMV only obtained full footage nine days after the crash. At the same time, the long term goal for the robotaxi is not just to be a clone of Uber, or even a modestly cheaper Uber. The demand for Uber and taxi services at these prices is quite well understood, and needs no grand experiment. There is some value in understanding the effects of removing a driver, and the eventual effects of having a specialty vehicle like the Cruise Origin or Waymo Zeekr, both of which are yet to go into service. Waymo and Cruise have been eager for permission to charge fares for rides.

Plus, a Faraday Future whistleblower case and humanoid robots in car factories

According to the company, which has 40 cameras and sensors mounted on each of its vehicles, its self-driving vehicle quickly swerved and braked in an attempt to avoid a collision with the woman, but still made impact. The vehicle then stopped but, according to Cruise, “attempted to pull over,” dragging the woman an additional 20 feet. Cruise says this sort of evasive maneuver was built into the vehicle’s software to promote safety, and is required by both California and federal regulators. Cruise spokesperson Navideh Forghani says Cruise has stayed in close contact with regulators but disputed the DMV’s timeline. She says the agency was shown video of the entire incident, including the pull-over, the day after the crash.

GM’s Cruise Loses Its Self-Driving License in San Francisco After a Robotaxi Dragged a Person

A full service will need to handle most of the Bay Area to fully replace car ownership for a customer, and then offer an easy rental-car for rides outside the service area. Through a quirk of state law, the power to decide the robotaxis’ business fate fell to the state’s regulator best known for overseeing more established public services such as power, water, and telecommunications. The CPUC also regulates taxi and ride-hail services, giving it the final say in whether Waymo and Cruise could roll out their business model for self-driving cars full-time. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles says in a statement that it has determined that Cruise’s vehicles are not safe for public operation, and that the company ”misrepresented” safety information about its autonomous vehicle technology. In a filing on the suspension, the agency says that Cruise initially provided footage showing only the collision between its vehicle and the woman.

On the day of that suspension, Cruise spokesperson Navideh Forghani disputed that Cruise had misrepresented its technology, saying regulators had been shown video of the entire incident, including the pull-over maneuver, the day after the crash. San Francisco outlet Mission Local reported yesterday that the pedestrian remains in the hospital in serious condition. This time, the Cruise rides will be fared to cement the company's status as a commercial ride-hailing service. Cruise not only considers this as a piece of big news for them but also as a milestone for the autonomous vehicle industry in a shared mission "to improve life in our cities." As far as Cruise's timeline goes, the company's CEO, Kyle Vogt, first took a driverless ride last year. In February, the first autonomous taxi rides were offered to those who signed up on Cruise.

Cruise says the vehicle stopped, but then pulled over to move out of traffic, dragging the woman an additional 20 feet. The San Francisco Fire Department said it had to use rescue equipment to remove the woman from beneath the vehicle. The system worked seamlessly and I could see using it on occasion. The question is whether drivers want to cede that kind of control. Tesla dropped the monthly subscription price of its “Supervised FSD” (formerly known as “FSD Beta”) to $99, down from $199, in a bid to get more dollars and data from drivers. Exponent Energy, the Indian battery-tech company that claims to have developed 15-minute charging technology, has partnered with auto manufacturer Omega Seiki Mobility to deliver a passenger three-wheel EV with those rapid-charging capabilities.

Ridepooling has not been a big success because trips are made longer doing pick-up/drop-off for others. If instead the main vehicle can stick to the common routes and the short side-trips can be handled by a smaller robotaxi, a service can deliver pooling with almost no inconvenience. That’s not possible with human driven vehicles, because these short rides involve a lot of work by a driver for little distance and little money. They will, of course, never decline a ride order from their fleet operator. Today, Uber drivers must sit around waiting for the next fare, and they are not paid for this time.

The companies say they have plenty of other cities on the horizon. Cruise has said it will bring its self-driving services to Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, Miami, Atlanta, and Nashville. Waymo said earlier this month that it would expand into Austin, in addition to an already planned expansion in LA. Currently, there are roughly 20 Cruise vehicles operating in Houston and only at night.

Cruise co-founder, CTO and president Kyle Vogt was reportedly the first to ride the driverless AV, and he gushed about it all over Twitter. Cruise said curtailing its operations will provide “time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust,” in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. We’re working to bring new transportation options that work for you and your community. We believe driverless technology has the potential to save lives, enhance access and improve communities.

Its fleets in Dallas, Houston, and Miami, where Cruise has been preparing for commercial launches, will no longer hit the road without humans in the driver’s seat. The company says its orange and white Chevrolet Bolts will still be steered by software, but safety drivers will always be behind the wheel to take over if the technology goes wrong. With its permit, Cruise may operate vehicles on public roads in San Francisco between 10 p.m. At a top speed limit of 30 miles per hour and can drive in light rain and light fog. Cruise received permission to test autonomous vehicles on public roads with a safety driver in 2015 and without a driver in October 2020.