SAN FRANCISCO — Cruise will offer its autonomous vehicles on ride-hailing platform Uber starting next 12 months, the businesses said on Thursday, because the General Motors-backed robotaxi firm attempts a comeback.
The multi-year partnership will allow Uber riders to decide on a visit using a Cruise autonomous vehicle, they said. Shares of GM rose 1.3% in prolonged trading, while Uber fell 1.5%.
Uber has been offering driverless cars in Phoenix on its platform since October last 12 months through a partnership with Alphabet’s Waymo, which has about 700 vehicles in its fleet and is the one U.S. firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares.
Cruise is looking to seek out its way back to U.S. roads after a significant accident in San Francisco last 12 months forced the corporate to halt operations. Earlier this 12 months, it resumed testing with safety drivers while it really works to reassure state and federal officials of the security of its vehicles.
Cruise on Thursday agreed to recall nearly 1,200 robotaxis over hard braking issues, the U.S. auto safety regulator said, leading it to shut a probe into the problem.
Uber’s partnership with Cruise comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk is about to unveil its delayed plans for a robotaxi product in October amid slowing demand for electric vehicles.
Commercializing autonomous vehicles (AV) has been tougher than expected and brought longer than promised resulting from complex technology, soaring investments, tight regulatory scrutiny and federal investigations.
Uber sold its own self-driving division in 2020 to scale back money burn and refocus on its core business, including ride hailing and food delivery.
Uber is “uniquely positioned to supply tremendous value for AV players seeking to deploy their technology at scale,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on a post-earnings conference call this month.
Trips by self-driving vehicles on Uber’s platform rose six-fold within the June quarter year-on-year, helped by partnerships with firms including Waymo, in addition to startup Waabi for freight services.
This Article First Appeared At www.autoblog.com
