When one driverless car door closes, another one opens.
Cruise, an autonomous rideshare company based out of San Francisco, plans to begin offering self-driving rides in Austin by the end of this year or early 2023. The company, owned by General Motors, has also been testing expansion in Phoenix.
Cruise is filling a driverless-shaped hole in the market after Argo AI — which paired with Ford, Volkswagen, and Lyft to test autonomous taxis — announced earlier this month that it was shutting down Austin operations.
The robo-taxi company is currently training its autonomous fleet of Chevy Bolt electric vehicles with sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar, in Austin. Cruise currently operates 75 autonomous Chevy Bolts in San Francisco, and hopes to scale up to the same number in Austin.
Although the company has yet to release pricing details, Cruise has opened up a waitlist for those interested in using the service.