The company Cruise, which works together with GM, wants to supply two cities with robot taxis before the end of the year and expand strongly.
So far, Cruise has been on the road in San Francisco with its autonomous taxis. There they run a commercial service, which also has some curiosity exhibited But there was one accident and one anonymous hintthat the vehicles are not yet ready for the road.
Still, Cruise is bringing commercial robotic taxi service soon austin in Texas and Phoenix in Arizona. The service is expected to be up and running before the end of this year. Initially, the offering will be on a smaller scale and free of charge, but there will be no person behind the wheel. Scaling of the service is planned for the coming year.
Appropriate permits have been issued and Phoenix roads have been mapped. However, that is still pending for Austin. It took three weeks to get the permits. Obtaining permits in California took the company 33 months to commercial operations. In Phoenix is Waymo already active. In its suburbs began Waymo One, Waymo’s robotic taxi service. In Austin is Argo AI, that with ford and VW cooperates, already active.
In the coming year, Cruise also wants the model Origin launch. A vehicle specially created for robot taxi service that can transport more people. In this way, one hopes for a high increase in business from 2023. Even the sale of vehicles to private individuals is planned for 2025.
Although the costs are very high, you have a strategy to reduce costs as you grow. Robots were developed to load and clean vehicles, and energy-saving chips were used.
In Phoenix they also want the partnership with Walmart Remove. The supermarket chain also cooperates gatic and Nuro for the delivery of goods.