GMs Cruise to Resume Testing Robotaxi Service in Phoenix

Table Of Content

• Universal Studios tram crashes, injuring 14 riders
• News publishers’ alliance calls on feds to investigate Google for limiting California links
• California allows robo-taxis to expand and emergency responders aren't happy
• California: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego
• Letters to the Editor: Automate everything? Driverless taxis mean more jobs taken from humans
• What does the future of driverless taxi service in Los Angeles look like? It’s already here

The company raised $2 billion from GM and Microsoft Corp. in January and brought in billions of dollars in previous investment rounds from SoftBank Vision Fund, Honda Motor Co. and T. The Today, Explained team includes Miranda Kennedy, Amina Al-Sadi, Matt Collette, Haleema Shah, Victoria Chamberlin, Miles Bryan, Hady Mawajdeh, Patrick Boyd, Avishay Artsy, Amanda Lewellyn, Laura Bullard, and Rob Byers. The show is a production of the Vox Media Podcast Network.\r\n\r\n Transcripts of the show are available here.\r\n\r\n Download learning exercises to go along with our Today, Explained to Kids episodes. It sounds like what you’re saying is that people ought to get used to the idea of being driven around by robots. I’ve taken them out to go get drinks with friends and stuff, and they’ve become about as ubiquitous as an Uber or a Lyft.

Universal Studios tram crashes, injuring 14 riders

Throughout the years, activists have blockaded Google's private commuter buses from picking up employees in the city. And when scooter companies flooded the sidewalks with electric scooters, people threw them into San Francisco Bay. The October incident wasn’t the first time Cruise’s technology has caused problems. Even as Cruise expanded to new cities in the second half of 2023, its robotaxis were routinely malfunctioning in cities like San Francisco and Austin, disrupting the flow of traffic, public transit and first responders. The ride-hailing service initially will consist of just 30 electric vehicles confined to transporting passengers in less congested parts of San Francisco from 10 p.m. Those restrictions are designed to minimize chances of the robotic taxis causing property damage, injuries or death if something goes awry.

News publishers’ alliance calls on feds to investigate Google for limiting California links

It will also allow regulators to assess how the technology works before permitting the service to expand. There were dozens of people who lined up outside of the meeting on Thursday, and they gave six hours of public comment to say how much they really dislike these cars or how much they love them. Waymo and Cruise, they had a pretty big contingent there and support. Mothers Against Drunk Driving like to support Cruise because they like to plug that these robotaxis are safer than the average driver. In the week that followed, Cruise vehicles were involved in a series of incidents, including 10 robotaxis stalling and causing gridlock, a vehicle that drove into wet cement, and a crash with a fire truck that left a passenger injured.

California allows robo-taxis to expand and emergency responders aren't happy

That abnormal driving includes abrupt halts, swerves, erratic behavior or just stopping in the middle of the road. "We don't really need traffic cones to show how vulnerable they are," says the Safe Street Rebel organizer. Waymo said it informed its test riders about the change Monday in an email, which someone also posted to Reddit. Now Cruise appears to be going back to basics, a sharp pivot away from the aggressive growth strategy the company has been pursuing for the last few years.

Inclement weather like rain or snow can affect the ability of sensors, like lidar, radar and cameras, to accurately perceive the environment and make safe driving decisions. As a rainy city with plenty of hills, Seattle will present a unique challenge for Cruise’s self-driving system. Ziwen Wan, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at University of California, Irvine, has studied why driverless cars may be acting this way.

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Besides being restricted to places and times where there is less traffic and fewer pedestrians on the streets, Cruise’s driverless service won’t be allowed to operate in heavy rain or fog either. A lot of people said that the robotaxis just couldn’t handle the floods of people walking on the street. And it’s kind of funny to see because the cars kind of look clueless. So you really can’t yell at them to move or honk at them either.

California: San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego

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. GM’s presentation will include updates on the automaker’s electric vehicle plans, its SuperCruise driver-assistance feature and how the company will use its Ultify software platform to generate more revenue from app-based services in cars. Cruise, in which GM has a majority stake, hopes to start charging for rides next year with a modified version of the Chevrolet Bolt electric car. Ammann is expected to say that if California Public Utility Commission approvals are obtained, the company could start offering shared ride services in 2023 with its Origin autonomous shuttle. It will be built alongside the Hummer EV and electric Chevrolet Silverado pickup in GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

Letters to the Editor: Automate everything? Driverless taxis mean more jobs taken from humans

He used open source data for his research, so his findings aren't based specifically on Cruise and Waymo. Wan found that ordinary objects on the road can lead to dangerous driving behavior. Part of this, he says, is because the cars are programmed to be overly conservative.

GM's Cruise to resume robotaxi tests in Phoenix, Arizona, Bloomberg News reports - Reuters

GM's Cruise to resume robotaxi tests in Phoenix, Arizona, Bloomberg News reports.

Posted: Mon, 08 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

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 has not announced when or where it will resume driverless operations. The company’s main operations were historically based in San Francisco, but Cruise lost its permits to operate there following the accident. Cruise began expanding its paid service area in the Phoenix area in August 2023. Alphabet’s Waymo — Cruise’s main competitor that’s still active in San Francisco — has operated a paid, driverless robotaxi service in the area since 2020 and last year doubled its service area in downtown Phoenix and launched driverless rides to the airport.

These preconditions come as part of Cruise’s “passenger safety plan” that limits the service to overnight hours and doesn’t include the city’s dense urban core, according to the CPUC’s draft resolution. 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. The 3-1 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission came in response to applications from Cruise, backed by General Motors, and Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet. It was taken in a packed San Francisco hearing room after a marathon six-hour public comment session, over strenuous objections from San Francisco officials and some vocal residents.

It depends on the company, because until now, Cruise was actually able to charge for its rides. The confusing part about this is that different companies had different rules. They say that there’s going to be a base fee, and that there’s going to be cost per mile, cost per time. And the same thing with Cruise, except Cruise has been more public about their base fee of $5 and the additional costs on top of it. Liz Lindqwister, a data journalist at the nonprofit news startup the San Francisco Standard, has been documenting the bumpy expansion of robotaxis — while using them herself to commute around town.

Cruise Chief Executive Officer Dan Ammann is expected to say that the company plans to charge for rides as soon as next year and could expand in 2023 if Cruise gets the green light from California regulators. At the end of the day, it’s definitely a novelty to try out one of these cars. My parents are going to come visit in a month, and that’ll be the first thing I do, is show them the future in a robotaxi. And I think the big question now, too, is where this is going to fit in in the broader transportation landscape of not just San Francisco, but the state and the country.