Cruise Expands Robotaxi Service In Additional Cities In Record Time, CEO Says

  • General Motors Co GM owned robotaxi unit tweeted completing its first paid rides for members of the public in Phoenix and Austin.
  • Cruise shared that it accomplished its target to enter two new markets before the end of 2022.
  • Cruise, until now, only operated its ride-hailing service in San Francisco.
  • Also Read: Uber And Motional Tap Las Vegas For Their Collaborative Robotaxi Debut
  • Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt expected to expand faster in the new cities due to its San Francisco experience.
  • Those members of the public will be "friends and family" of Cruise employees, who are the only ones to have access to the company's ride-hail service to start, TechCrunch reports.
  • In Austin, Cruise will initially offer driverless rides in downtown and central Austin, Wednesday to Sunday, from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. 
  • Cruise's robotaxi service in Arizona will initially start in Chandler, southeast of Phoenix. Those rides are available Monday to Friday from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. 
  • Cruise also ran a delivery service across the Phoenix area.
  • Waymo has been running a commercial robotaxi service in Chandler since 2018.
  • Vogt was excited to share how it took years to launch in San Francisco but only weeks to expand into new territory.
  • In December, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a formal safety probe into the Cruise-made autonomous driving system in vehicles.
  • The auto safety regulator received notices of incidents of self-driving Cruise vehicles engaging in inappropriately hard braking or becoming immobilized.
  • The regulator's preliminary evaluation covered 242 Cruise autonomous vehicles and is the first step before it could seek a recall.
  • Price Action: GM shares traded higher by 1.14% at $35.60 on the last check Wednesday.
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