Car company Cruise launches driverless rideshare service in Austin

Table Of Content

• Are driverless services already on Austin's road?
• Cruise expects GM to begin production of new driverless vehicle in early 2023
• Scout Motors wants to put the ‘mechanical’ back into electric trucks
• You now can ride in a driverless car in Austin, as GM-owned Cruise expands rideshare services
• Now in Phoenix
• More driverless cars are coming to Austin: What you need to know
• Disengagement and remote assistance

In a video released by the company, a Cruise employee is seen in the passenger seat while the car drives itself through the darkened streets of San Francisco. Cruise’s vehicles all have an emergency switch in the center channel near the gear shift in case something goes wrong, and they are also monitored remotely by Cruise employees. Asked whether remote operators are able to take control of the vehicle when needed, Ammann declined to answer. Commercializing autonomous vehicles has been far more challenging than many predicted even a few years ago. The challenges have led to a consolidation in the autonomous vehicle sector after years of enthusiasm touting the technology as the next multitrillion-dollar market for transportation companies. Cruise declined to share details on exactly where in Austin the service will operate or how many vehicles it will have in Central Texas.

Are driverless services already on Austin's road?

The company declined to comment on a time frame for a public launch, however Ammann sounded bullish on such operations beginning with the Bolt vehicles before the Origin goes into production. Cruise's current test fleet is composed of hundreds of custom Chevrolet Bolt EVs equipped with driverless technology. Ammann said that fleet, which it plans to launch operations with, will continue to expand until the Origin goes into production. The Origin is the company's first vehicle specifically designed to operate without a driver on board.

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Cruise expects GM to begin production of new driverless vehicle in early 2023

The company has been letting some of its drivers test an advanced driver assistance system called "full self driving" technology, designed to navigate, steer, accelerate and brake on local roads. Some of the many Tesla vehicles driving around Austin could be part of the program. This past weekend, the two cities became the first outside of the company’s home base in San Francisco where its rideshare services are available.

Scout Motors wants to put the ‘mechanical’ back into electric trucks

He said in Phoenix the company is building off an existing partnership it has with Walmart for delivery services. The company already has the permits needed for commercial ride-hall and delivery operations in Phoenix. Austin is about to see more driverless cars on its roadways, as another autonomous vehicle company says it is expanding into Austin by the end of the year. In Texas, autonomous vehicles are regulated under a law passed in 2017 that allows vehicles to operate without a driver inside, although prior to that no law prohibited autonomous vehicles. San Francisco-based Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, is now offering a fully autonomous rideshare service in Austin with no human drivers or monitors.

The 2017 law says that autonomous vehicles used on highways have to be able to follow traffic laws, have insurance like other cars and be equipped with video recording devices. The manufacturers are considered responsible for any collisions or broken traffic laws. The 2017 law says that autonomous vehicles used on highways have to be able to follow traffic laws, have insurance like other cars, and be equipped with video recording devices.

Now in Phoenix

Its main rival, Google spinoff Waymo, has been testing its fully driverless vehicles in Phoenix for over a year, and recently announced it would be making its Level 4 taxi service available to more customers. The company had planned to launch a commercial taxi service in 2019 but failed to do so, and it has yet to publicly commit to a new date. Cruise was expected to launch a ride-hailing service for the public in San Francisco in 2019.

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In both Lyft and Walmart services, the vehicles still had human safety drivers ready to take over in the event of an issue. Ford and Argo AI have established several partnerships to test autonomous technology in Austin. The companies are working with ride-hailing service Lyft, with plans to allow customers in defined service areas to select one of the self-driving vehicles when ordering a ride.

More driverless cars are coming to Austin: What you need to know

The time frame given for the vehicle is the most detailed yet and also hints at when the commercial operation of Cruise's current autonomous vehicle test fleet is expected to start. Despite the name, industry experts and the company itself do not consider the vehicles to be autonomous, and the feature does require active driver supervision. All Teslas produced after 2014 are also equipped with autopilot driver assistance technology. The newest version of the technology is powered by eight external cameras and vision processing technology. In 2019, Google’s autonomous vehicle company Waymo pulled out of Austin after testing its autonomous vehicle technology here for several years. Argo AI had been operating in Austin since 2019 in partnership with Ford Motor Company, and Ford has been deploying prototypes in Austin to establish the city as a proving ground for autonomous vehicle technology.

The agency said the crashes involved Cruise vehicles that may have been braking abruptly or stopping unexpectedly, causing them to be hit from behind by other vehicles. Megan Prichard, a Cruise vice president, said driverless rideshare is a "really unique experience" for passengers. Cruise ridehail services are not available at this time, but you can join the waitlist to be one of the first. We believe driverless technology has the potential to save lives, enhance access and improve communities.

Since becoming part of General Motors in March 2016,[17] Cruise has been working on developing software and hardware to make fully autonomous vehicles using modified Chevrolet Bolts. Cruise, a majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors, expects production of its driverless shuttle called the Origin to begin in early 2023, CEO Dan Ammann said Thursday. Beyond the testing of vehicles, Austin is also home to a number of companies and tech operations that are working on technology for self-driving vehicles. The company has been operating a ride-hailing service in San Francisco and received permission to start charging customers for rides this year.

Truly driverless cars with no humans ready to take over are already cruising around Austin. Last year, driverless vehicle startup Argo AI announced it had began operating its autonomous test vehicles in Austin without human safety drivers. The vehicles are primarily operating downtown, as well as in east and south Austin, with the initial passengers being Argo AI employees who are able to stop or trigger the vehicle to pull over in case of emergency. San Francisco-based Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, says it it has started ramping up its operations in Austin, with plans to offer robo-taxi services in Austin and Phoenix by the end of the year. The company joins other autonomous vehicles that have been testing or operating in Austin, including Ford and Argo AI. Cruise, the self-driving car company affiliated with General Motors and Honda, is testing fully driverless cars, without a human safety driver behind the steering wheel, in San Francisco.

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It has been operating an employee ride-hailing service with a current fleet of autonomous vehicles in San Francisco for several years. Undher, an Austin-based company founded in 2015, makes digital imaging radar technology designed to be used in autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems. The company says its technology is capable of detecting and tracking thousands of objects, and that it is expected to be used in the upcoming Fisker Ocean crossover, which is scheduled to debut this year from EV startup Fisker. Cruise was the fifth company to receive a driverless permit from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, the others being Waymo, Nuro, Zoox, and AutoX. Currently, 60 companies have an active permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in California.

The news that the company will be relying less on its operations staff during its testing comes after Cruise’s safety drivers have complained about a lack of safety standards during the pandemic and subsequent wildfires. They accuse Cruise of deploying its self-driving cars during the spring lockdown in defiance of public health orders banning nonessential travel. And they say Cruise isn’t doing enough to keep them safe during these public health crises. The companies are also working with retail giant Walmart, using the vehicles as part of Walmart's delivery service, primarily delivering orders in an area near the Walmart store on East Ben White Boulevard.

In Austin, the service is open to passengers in central parts of the city and downtown, but plans call for it to be expanded over time. Cruise was approved to test fully driverless cars (also called Level 4 in industry parlance) in California on October 15th. According to the DMV, Cruise can only test five driverless vehicles “on specified streets within San Francisco.” The vehicles are not allowed to exceed 30 mph, and can’t operate during heavy fog or heavy rain. Austin technology giant National Instruments (which has rebranded to NI) has increasingly been making bets on autonomous vehicle and safety technology, entering into two deals related to the technology last year. NI acquired Austin-based monoDrive, a startup that specializes in autonomous vehicle simulations, and also announced it was entering a strategic collaboration with engineering simulation company Ansys. The company announced in September that it had started ramping up its operations in Austin, with plans to offer robot-taxi services here and in Phoenix by the end of the year.