Are you ready to hop in a fully automated taxi, without a driver behind the wheel? It’s about to become a reality in San Francisco, and you can sign up to get on the waitlist now.
Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company owned by General Motors, opened its waitlist to the public on Tuesday. The company is offering free rides while awaiting approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to charge passengers.
It's not uncommon to see self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco, but the absence of a driver behind the wheel will be a first for the public. Cruise has been testing the technology with its own employees since late last year.
"We think this is just one opportunity for the public to get educated to start to experience this," Prashanthi Raman, Vice President of Global Government Affairs at Cruise, told KCBS Radio in an interview on Tuesday. "We know bringing this kind of transformative tech to life is a trust race as much as it is a tech race, and so we know that we will not be successful in our mission to scale our self-driving vehicles without earning the trust of the public."
The company's goal is to be the exciting future of transportation and "brilliantly boring," as interim CEO Kyle Vogt put it in a blog on Tuesday, at the same time. Think slow and steady, like an airport shuttle.
"It's quite unique to see a car roll up with no driver in it, but it's almost incredibly boring to be in the car and watching the car sort of drive itself," Raman said.
Cruise is the first entrant in the CPUC’s driverless car pilot program. The California Department of Motor Vehicles authorized the company to use its technology in San Francisco in October 2020.
The company is initially offering rides in select parts of the city between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., when there are fewer safe transit options and human drivers can be fatigued, or otherwise less safe on the road.
"We work complimentary with public transit," Raman said. "I think the reason we’re starting at nighttime is part of our strategy to focus on where we can have the best impact, and expand methodically from there."
You can add your name to the waitlist on Cruise's website.
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