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Cruise has expanded its driverless robotaxi service to daytime hours • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 17, 2022Posted in autonomous vehicles, cruise, robotaxi, San Francisco, TransportationNo Comments

Cruise is expanding its driverless ride-hailing service in San Francisco to daytime hours, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tweeted Wednesday. The robotaxi service is now available to employees from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then again from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eventually, these expanded operating hours will be available to the public. The bolstered hours are the latest expansion of the GM subsidiary’s driverless operations in San Francisco. Cruise opened its driverless robotaxi service, in which there is not a human safety operator, to the public in early 2022. Initially, the rides were free, limited to small portions of the city and only offered between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. That service has expanded over time. Cruise began charging for rides in June 2022. Today, public customers can hail (and are charged for) driverless rides between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. About 70 Cruise AVs are operating in the service. Cruise has about 300 AVs across its operations in San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix. Fares include a base fee of $5 and a $0.90 per mile and $0.40 per-minute rate. A 1.5% city tax is also included in the price. An estimated fare is calculated using the estimated time and distance of the fastest, most optimal route. Cruise shares that estimate fare with customers and will charge that amount if the time or distance of the actual ride takes longer. Cruise doesn’t have surge pricing. Image Credits: Cruise Earlier this month, Cruise expanded its service area to most of San Francisco. For now, that expanded area is only available to employees. Cruise is also expanding operations to Austin and Phoenix. In October, the company invited potential passengers in Phoenix and Austin to join the waitlist to be among the first robotaxi passengers. During GM’s third-quarter earnings call, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company remains on track to complete its first commercial driverless public rides and deliveries by the end of the year. Cruise will likely follow a similar playbook in Austin and Phoenix as it has in San Francisco, albeit at a faster pace considering both locations are in states with fewer regulatory hurdles than California. In San Francisco, Cruise typically starts with its own employees and then opens it up to the public. The service area and hours also start small and grow, each time being first offered to employees.

Cruise opens robotaxi waitlist in Austin and Phoenix • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in autonomous vehicles, cruise, TransportationNo Comments

Cruise, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle subsidiary, is now inviting potential passengers in Phoenix and Austin to join the waitlist to be among the first Cruise robotaxi passengers. The company has been operating a fully driverless commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco since June, with fully driverless meaning there’s no human safety operator behind the wheel. Last month, Cruise announced plans to add Austin, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona to its resume. During GM’s third quarter earnings call, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company remains on track to complete its first commercial driverless public rides and deliveries by the end of the year. When Cruise initially launched its waitlist to join the “Cruise Rider Community” in San Francisco earlier this year, it promised rides would be free at first. In the past, the company said initial rides in Austin and Phoenix may be free with the intent to begin charging for the service shortly after, but a spokesperson told ZebethMedia today that Cruise will launch a fully driverless paid service immediately. The company began supervised testing in Austin last month with more than a dozen vehicles, according to Vogt, who noted that Cruise’s mapping systems “work as expected.” Cruise intends to begin at limited scale and ramp up as the company produces more vehicles — specifically, the Cruise Origin, a purpose-built AV that Cruise will rely on for its exponential levels of scale and robotaxi domination across the U.S. Interestingly, as part of the waitlist questionnaire, Cruise asks what time of day riders would most likely use the service: morning, afternoon, night and late night. In San Francisco, Cruise only operates from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in San Francisco, largely due to California’s regulations. Cruise’s main competitor Waymo, which has been providing a commercial robotaxi service outside of Phoenix since 2020, operates 24/7, according to the company’s FAQs. So it follows that Cruise may not have to remain a vehicle of the night when it goes to Arizona, at least. Cruise said it would share more updates on the times of day it will run its service in the near future.