Uber and self-driving car company GM Cruise are working together to bring roboaxis to Uber locations, according to a press release.
The companies plan to launch a multi-year partnership next year with a set number of autonomous vehicles. Once robotaxis is available, when an Uber passenger requests a qualified ride within the Uber app, they can see the option to have that ride fulfilled via AV.
“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 CEO Marc Whitten said in a statement.
Uber, which ditched its self-driving division in 2020, has been focusing on partnerships to fulfill its autonomous missions.
“As the world’s largest ride-hailing 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,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a press release.
The partnership is a positive sign for troubled Cruise, which pulled all of its AVs off the road last year after one of its vehicles hit and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. (Since then, Cruise has brought back supervised driving in three cities.) Just this week, Cruise agreed to recall an entire fleet of traffic lights to resolve a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into alleged brake failures.
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