Uber and GM’s Cruise announced what they called a “multi-year strategic partnership” Thursday to offer self-driving cars for hire—commonly called robotaxis—on Uber’s platform. And while there’s still a lot we don’t know about the system, from how much the ride will cost to the cities it’ll be available in, both companies say it will be up and running next year.
Contacted Thursday, a Cruise spokeswoman would tell Gizmodo exclusively that the first city with Uber’s platform robots in 2025 will be one of three cities: Phoenix, Arizona, Dallas, Texas or Houston, Texas. “We are very focused on relaunching our app and driverless service, and the launch of this partnership will follow that,” a spokesperson said via email.
Uber has dabbled in self-driving cars on the roads as an alternative to human transportation, but the company’s efforts have not been successful. Back in 2017, Uber even signed a deal with Volvo to make that happen in a plan that ended up being disrupted. There was an Uber robotaxis in Las Vegas in 2022, but they still have drivers behind the wheel. It’s clear that achieving reliable and safe self-driving capabilities in rental cars on a wider scale has been a dream that several companies have been trying to make happen for more than a decade.
“Cruise is on a mission to use driverless technology to create safer roads and redefine urban life,” said Marc Whitten, CEO of Cruise, in a statement published online. “We’re excited to partner with Uber to bring the benefits of safe, reliable, autonomous driving to even more people, ushering in a new era of urban mobility.”
Cruise’s operating license was previously suspended in California after an October 2023 incident in which a self-driving car hit and dragged a pedestrian on a jaywalk in San Francisco. Cruise temporarily suspended operations but in June 2024 resumed sailings to Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas.
The marketing pitch, rightly or wrongly, has always been that self-driving taxis are about making transportation safer while reducing labor costs. Uber has already “disrupted” the taxi industry by suppressing wages by repeatedly violating labor laws. But now that Uber is about to dominate the taxi industry, it makes sense that it would want to fire those drivers in order to be more efficient.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, as CEO of Cruise, played a safety role when he presented the idea on Thursday, completely ignoring the labor issues that could arise.
“As the largest ride-hailing and delivery platform, we believe Uber can play an important role in helping to safely and reliably introduce autonomous technology to consumers and cities around the world,” Khosrowshahi said. “We are very excited to be working with Cruise and look forward to launching it next year.”
Uber did not respond to questions about the timing and availability of cars in the upcoming program. Gizmodo will update this post when we hear back.
Source link
