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Waymo and Cruise may soon offer autonomous rides and deliveries in California
Waymo and Cruise have asked California's DMV for permission to start charging for rides and deliveries with their autonomous vehicles in California.
Walmart invests in GM-owned autonomous car startup Cruise
Walmart has invested in GM's self-driving car subsidiary Cruise following their partnership on a pilot delivery program.
GM's Cruise will operate a robotaxi service in Dubai
Cruise has struck a deal to operate a robotaxi service in Dubai in 2023 — the first time it will offer commercial self-driving service outside of the US.
GM-backed Cruise acquires self-driving startup Voyage
GM-backed Cruise is acquiring self-driving startup Voyage.
Microsoft teams up with Cruise and GM on self-driving cars
Cruise, GM and Microsoft have entered a partnership to speed up the arrival of self-driving cars.
Walmart will test self-driving delivery services with electric cars
Walmart and Cruise are piloting self-driving delivery in early 2021 for residents of Scottsdale, Arizona.
GM will test fully driverless cars in SF later this year
San Francisco residents will start seeing unmanned Cruise driverless vehicles on the streets of their city by the end of the year.
Waymo doesn't like California's benchmark for self-driving research
Waymo is the latest company to criticize "disengagements," a metric that indicates how often a human driver is forced to take over from a fully-autonomous driving system. At the moment, every company with a self-driving car program in California must report their disengagements to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). That includes Alphabet subsidiary Waymo, the General Motors-owned Cruise, Aurora and Nuro. The metric wasn't meant to create a public-facing leaderboard. However, industry onlookers have inevitably used disengagements to compare the maturity of these companies and the sophistication of their self-driving software. Why? Because it's rare for startups to give out lots of meaningful data, especially in a way that can be directly compared to their competition. Disengagements aren't perfect, but as the age-old saying goes, something is better than nothing.
GM spends $2.2 billion to set up an EV-only plant in Detroit
GM just demonstrated that electric vehicles can create jobs in addition to taking them away. The automaker has revealed plans for a $2.2 billion investment that will turn its Detroit-Hamtramck facility into its first assembly plant completely devoted to EVs. When it's fully ready, it'll create over 2,200 "good-paying" jobs, GM claimed. The factory will produce a "variety" of electric trucks and SUVs. While GM didn't outline the full product mix, it noted that production on its first electric pickup truck will start at the plant in late 2021. The Cruise Origin self-driving shuttle should start production soon afterward.
Cruise's self-driving electric shuttle is made for ridesharing
Cruise still isn't ready to say when its autonomous vehicle will be available, but now it's shown off the Origin, a GM-built electric shuttle van that doesn't have a steering wheel or pedals. Instead it's fully self-driving, intended to be a shareable, modular vehicle that can handle being on the road all the time. It's basically a minibus, with three seats at each end that face each other and split sliding doors that open up like a subway car. Cruise hasn't revealed details like the battery capacity or cost, but claims that "the average San Franciscan household driving themselves or using ridesharing" will see savings of $5,000 per year thanks to the vehicle. According to execs, more information on manufacturing for this "production" vehicle will be coming soon. Also, because of its modular design, they think it will be better suited for use as a robotaxi than regular passenger cars, and that its sensors will have "superhuman" ability to spot pedestrians and navigate in bad weather. They claim it's "what you'd build if there were no cars." Lofty promises -- hopefully we'll find out soon how the company plans to fulfill them. Others, including Ford, Waymo, Uber and Tesla, just to name a few, are also chasing the autonomous-cars-as-a-service model in different ways, and it's still unclear who may get their first.
GM won't deliver self-driving cars by the end of the year after all
General Motors and its self-driving car subsidiary Cruise will miss their goal of rolling out driverless cars by the end of the year. According to Financial Times, Cruise said more testing is needed. "Delivering self-driving cars at scale isn't just about winning the tech race, it's about winning the tech race and the trust race," Cruise chief executive Dan Ammann wrote in a blog post today.
GM's self-driving unit is close to receiving a $2.25 billion boost
It took more than a year, but GM's self-driving company is close to receiving a giant cash infusion. Cruise Automation confirmed to Reuters that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) had approved SoftBank's $2.25 billion investment in the driverless tech company. SoftBank will have a spot on Cruise's board as a result of the deal. However, a Reuters source claimed that SoftBank wouldn't have access to the technology itself -- a condition CFIUS reportedly set out over concerns that the Japanese firm's investments in Chinese tech would compromise American trade secrets.
GM is doubling the staff for its self-driving car business
General Motors is ramping up its autonomous vehicle business. According to Reuters, the company is planning to hire 1,000 people over the next nine months to work on Cruise, a GM subsidiary that develops self-driving car technology. The hiring spree would double the amount of staff currently under the Cruise umbrella and would mark a major investment in autonomous efforts.
DoorDash will make autonomous food deliveries with help from GM
DoorDash has made it pretty clear that if you're hungry, it's going to be the company that makes sure you get what you want. Over the last year or so it's rolled out group ordering, grocery delivery and even ice cream delivery -- all with sustainability on the agenda. Now, it's making sure you get fed as soon as is absolutely possible, thanks to a partnership with General Motors' Cruise self-driving vehicles.
GM's self-driving car reportedly has trouble recognizing pedestrians
It seems that General Motors' self-driving car unit, Cruise, is running into major difficulties, and will likely not be able to hit its late 2019 launch target. Sources close to the project have told Reuters that engineers have been hitting unexpected technical challenges, like being able to detect objects if objects are in motion. For example, vehicles would hesitate or stop when passing a row of parked bicycles, would mistakenly see "phantom bicycles" that caused jerky stops, and would even fail to recognize pedestrians. "Nothing is on schedule," one GM source told Reuters, as Cruise has already missed mileage targets and milestones.
Honda teams with GM to produce autonomous vehicles
This week, Honda that announced that it is purchasing a stake in GM's autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise. It's part of a larger plan for the Japanese and American vehicle manufacturers to work together in order to develop and produce an autonomous vehicle.
GM settles with motorcyclist over accident with self-driving Bolt
Earlier this year, Oscar Nilsson sued GM over an accident involving one of the company's self-driving Chevy Bolts. In December, according to Nilsson, the Bolt began changing lanes but then suddenly swerved back into Nilsson's lane, knocking him and his motorcycle over and causing injuries to his neck and shoulder. Now Nilsson and GM have reached a settlement. "The parties anticipate finalizing all details and filing a joint stipulation for dismissal with prejudice within thirty (30) days, or before June 29, 2018," says a court filing announcing the agreement.
SoftBank pours $2.25 billion into GM's self-driving car division
SoftBank hasn't been shy about its interest in smart cars, and it's taking that fascination to a new level. The company's Vision Fund is investing $2.25 billion in GM's self-driving vehicle unit Cruise. The cash influx will start with $900 million the moment the transaction closes, and will finish with $1.35 billion once the completely driverless Cruise AV car is ready to launch. The move will give the Vision Fund a 19.6 percent stake in Cruise -- not enough to take control, but it could easily prove influential.
GM faces lawsuit over self-driving car collision
Self-driving car manufacturers dread lawsuits over crashes due to questions of liability, and GM is about to learn just how problematic they can be. Oscar Nilsson has sued GM after a December collision between his motorcycle and one of the company's self-driving Chevy Bolts. According to his version of events, he was trailing the Bolt when it started changing lanes. He tried to pass the autonomous car, but it "suddenly" swerved back into his lane, knocking him to the ground and injuring both his neck and shoulder.
GM's self-driving ambitions don't include 'small-scale pilots'
Cruise is GM's self-driving division, and it has found surprising success with the Chevy Bolt, which has been deployed in test programs across the country. This week, CEO and Cofounder Kyle Vogt outlined the company's plans for the deployment of their autonomous vehicle fleet. A key takeaway is that Vogt isn't interested in small-scale pilot programs; they are also "not going to launch a ride hailing pilot where you've got drivers still in the car," according to Vogt in TechCrunch.
