Uber has signed up another robotaxi company to offer driverless rides inside its app. Starting sometime next year, for “qualifying” rides, Uber will give you the option to take the trip in one of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles. The two companies announced a “multiyear strategic partnership” on Thursday.
Technology
Uber teams up with Cruise to deliver more autonomous rides next year
Uber and Cruise announced a “multiyear strategic partnership” to offer robotaxi rides starting next year.
Uber already partnered with Waymo on autonomous rides and announced a long-term deal with driverless truck company Aurora earlier this year. It also offered driverless rides with Motional before Motional paused its robotaxi deployments in May. The original date for Elon Musk’s event revealing Tesla’s robotaxi developments passed a couple of weeks ago, but now it’s supposed to take place October 10th.
Cruise halted its robotaxi service in October following an incident where a Cruise car dragged a pedestrian. The company recently brought autonomous vehicles back to the road with safety drivers. Cruise spokesperson Tiffany Testo tells The Verge that the launch of its partnership with Uber will happen after Cruise brings back its driverless ridehailing service.
In their press release, Uber and Cruise didn’t say what cities the service might be available in, but Testo says that users can “expect” it to launch in one of the cities where it’s doing supervised testing: Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston.