Uber to start offering self-driving cars

Uber and Cruise LLC, a self-driving car startup owned by General Motors, have announced a partnership in which Cruise will provide Chevy Bolt self-driving vehicles to the ridesharing giant beginning next year, per a release from Cruise. 

“As the largest mobility and delivery platform, we believe Uber can play an important role in helping to safely and reliably introduce autonomous technology to consumers and cities around the world,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a statement. “We’re thrilled to partner with Cruise and look forward to launching next year.” 

This is not the first time Cruise has offered autonomous taxis. California issued a permit to the company to operate self-driving taxis in San Francisco, and by the end of October 2023, there were close to 600 autonomous vehicles in the city. 

However, after a set of safety incidents, including two pedestrian accidents, California withdrew its permit and federal regulators began investigating the cars. 

Cruise also operated in Phoenix, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Miami, and the company voluntarily suspended operations in those cities. Cruise also recalled close to 1000 vehicles in response to the incidents and federal investigation. 

According to the company’s release, in June, the company began to bring its cars back on the road pending the full results of the federal investigation. 

“Cruise combines a culture of innovative technology and safety with a history of manufacturing and automotive excellence,” Cruise wrote in its release. 

Cruise has resumed supervised autonomous driving in Phoenix, Houston and Dallas as well as testing in Dubai. The federal investigation into the company has not yet been concluded. 

“Cruise is on a mission to leverage driverless technology to create safer streets and redefine urban life,” said Marc Whitten, CEO of Cruise. “We are excited to partner with Uber to bring the benefits of safe, reliable, autonomous driving to even more people, unlocking a new era of urban mobility.”

First founded in 2013, General Motors acquired Cruise in 2016 and has allowed the company to operate independently. The company is developing a toolkit to retrofit Chevrolet Bolts to make them autonomous. 

Uber has also tried to offer its autonomous vehicle technology and partnered with Volvo in 2016 to develop the technology. However, the company abandoned the effort in 2018 after an Uber self-driving car struck and killed a woman in Arizona. 

Since then, Uber has partnered with Google-owned Waymo to offer driverless rides or food delivery to Uber users in Arizona. 

During Uber’s most recent earnings call, the company’s top exec, Khosrowshahi, predicted that there would be a “pretty long hybrid period as autonomous is developing and regulators are trying to figure out exactly how to regulate it.”