The start-up Cruise has announced its expansion plan. How are the chances?
Cruise is a start-up created for General Motors developed autonomous driving. So far it’s mostly in san francisco represented, with one recently from night to day driving surrounded The company is now pursuing further expansion plans.
To Reuters (via car news) as COO Gil West put it: A large number of markets will be entered. This should succeed with the expansion of operations and the use of thousands of vehicles. He named the coming year as the time horizon.
Previously, Cruise planned to offer rides in Austin and Phoenix. But more cities are to come. The previous activities served as a blueprint. This is how the start-up wants to increase sales. The autonomous vehicle Origin, which causes only low costs, should also contribute to this.
These vehicles are currently being tested in Cruise. Series production will also begin next year. With a variation of Origin you also want to turn the delivery services inside out. These are equipped with lockers for goods. A cooperation partner for this is the supermarket chain Walmart.
Google sister Waymo is also currently planning one Expansion to Los Angeles. And Waymo also has a new vehicle in the making, but it comes from the Chinese manufacturer Geely: Zeekr. That could be a problem given the tensions between China and the US, as autonomous cars have recently been introduced into the US List of national security threats recorded.
Also, some startups have failed recently. Already led two years ago Zoox, purchased from Amazon, is dying. Amazon but did not join Argo AI a, so VW and ford dropped it. In the meantime, many companies are reducing investment capacities.
However, GM promises sales of 50 billion US dollars by 2030 from the operation of the robotic taxi concept. This may be possible because of the reduced competition. However, the bosses are rather Waymo or even motional With Via, Above and lyft.