On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to give Cruise, a General Motors company that makes autonomous cars, permission to begin driverless taxi rides in San Francisco.
The company will use a line of 30 driverless electric Chevrolet Bolts to carry passengers around the city. Cruise will be the first company to operate a commercial autonomous taxi service in a major US city, the COO of Cruise, Gil West, stated. The regulators required that the vehicles travel at a maximum speed of 30 MPH. The service will be active from 10 PM to 6 AM every day, and when weather conditions are fit for use.
In April, General Motors noted that it will spend $2 billion this year on Cruise. The company has not made a profit yet but is expected to once the service is operational. Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said that he aims to reach $50 billion in revenue over the next eight years. GM is reportedly developing a car called the Origin in a partnership with Honda, which Cruise plans to use in the future. The car will have no steering wheel or gas pedal. Production for this vehicle is expected to begin in early 2023 at Factory Zero, Detriot.
Elon Musk had previously promised that Tesla would be operating a robotic taxi division by 2020, which was later failed to meet.