San Francisco robotaxis get the green light to operate 24/7

Google's Waymo and General Motors' Cruise have both received the green light from California's regulatory body to implement 24/7 fare-based services for fully driverless rides in San Francisco.

The pivotal decision was made by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which voted 3 to 1 in favour of granting the expansion of driverless services for the two tech giants. The CPUC says it meticulously evaluated the companies' adherence to licensing requisites and considered...

Cruise robotaxis now run 24/7 in San Francisco

Cruise has announced that it’s now operating 24/7 in San Francisco, marking a significant milestone in its journey.

However, the wider public is currently only able to use the service in around one-third of the city between 10pm and 5:30am. Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt has promised that this will soon change as Cruise moves closer to launching a fully-fledged robotaxi service open to the public around the clock.

Vogt said the systems that power the robotaxi network in San...

San Francisco officials want the CPUC to slow robotaxi authorisations

San Francisco officials have sent letters to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) expressing their concerns over the pace of robotaxi deployments.

Driverless vehicle giants Cruise and Waymo have significant expansion plans for their respective operations in San Francisco. However, their existing deployments have been causing some problems for the city.

Some of the reported issues have included driverless vehicles stopping in the middle of the road for no...

Cruise is expanding its robotaxi trials to Arizona and Texas

California-based autonomous driving firm Cruise has announced that it’s expanding pilots of its robotaxis to Arizona and Texas.

https://twitter.com/kvogt/status/1569419156063408128

Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, launched driverless rides in San Francisco back in February. The announcement this week marks the first expansion of Cruise’s service.

Our team is going from zero footprint in Austin (no test vehicles or maps) to driverless...

Cruise offers free robotaxi trips in San Francisco without backup drivers

Self-driving vehicle service Cruise is offering free public robotaxi trips in San Francisco without backup drivers.

The free trips will use Cruise’s fleet of retrofitted Chevrolet Bolt vehicles that includes Poppy and Tostada. These vehicles are ‘Level 4’ meaning they’re fully driverless and don't require a backup driver but still feature a steering wheel, pedals, mirrors and everything required for manual control.

Cruise was granted approval to test its...

Waymo and Cruise can now offer autonomous vehicle rides to the public

Autonomous Vehicle

Waymo and Cruise have both received approval to offer autonomous vehicle rides to the public by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Whilst a major step in the push towards autonomous vehicles, both companies will only be allowed to operate in certain parts of the state and under specific conditions.

All that remains is to secure a deployment permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and both companies will be able to offer paid...