Cruise, GM’s autonomous vehicle division, has just started test driving their driverless cars around the streets of Charlotte.
The Queen City has now joined 7 other cities for Cruise’s operations, including; San Francisco (its headquarters), Phoenix, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Miami, and most recently, Nashville. Of those, Cruise has actively rolled out fully-operational robotaxis in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin.
Hi, Charlotte! 👋
We’re thrilled to launch our initial testing across the Queen City today. More details to come as we work towards going driverless in your city.
Stay tuned!
— cruise (@Cruise) August 15, 2023
Although securing regulatory approvals for San Francisco operations took 33 months, subsequent deployments in Phoenix and Austin were achieved in just three weeks. Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) endorsed Cruise’s final permit, enabling them to bill for rides, increase operating hours and service regions, and augment its robotaxi count as needed.
However, Cruise’s journey into the robotaxi market hasn’t come without problems. Here are just a couple of the issues the company’s cars have had on their test drives while in live traffic:
. @Cruise driverless vehicle in front of me yesterday illegally went through a Stop sign and nearly ran over two moms and their kids. #SF pic.twitter.com/FjoFN95l7l
— enelay (@enelayy) August 14, 2023
😬 @Cruise self-driving operations had a complete meltdown earlier in North Beach. We overheard on the scanner that all Cruise vehicle agents were tied up at the time (not literally) and so North Beach was going to get a delayed response. But wow, WTF!pic.twitter.com/D89xrSxAdu
— FriscoLive415 (@friscolive415) August 12, 2023
What do you think about the company coming to Charlotte?
Do you think driverless cars are the future of transportation?
