Just when you thought (hoped?) they may have been canceled, robotaxi operators seem to find a way to resurface, and with a vengeance. Take Cruise, for example. Instead of imploding, the General Motors-owned autonomous car service has announced a multi-year partnership with Uber.
In a joint press release, Cruise and Uber said that starting next year, Cruise’s Chevrolet Bolt-based autonomous vehicles will be available for Uber rideshare requests. However, the statement was brief and did not indicate where the partnership rides would be offered or what a “qualifying ride” request would entail. Would it be based on the type of ride requested (i.e., UberX, Uber Green), travel distance, rider rating, personal or business account…? And what would the fare be compared to the other ride options? So many questions and zero answers.
Nevertheless, it’s a bold move by Cruise, which, as of June, is authorized to operate supervised autonomous driving in only three cities: Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix. The announcement also included executive quotes, which come off as either overly upbeat or naively confident.
“We are excited to partner with Uber to bring the benefits of safe, reliable, autonomous driving to even more people, unlocking a new era of urban mobility,” said Cruise CEO Marc Whitten.
“As the largest mobility and delivery platform, we believe Uber can play an important role in helping to safely and reliably introduce autonomous technology to consumers and cities around the world,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
When thinking of robotaxis, annoyance, disdain, fear, and lawsuits come to mind. At least to me. Oh, and to Canadians who have banned self-driving cars from public roads in British Columbia. I just don’t associate self-driving car services with reliability, safety, or trust. I can’t. Headlines about Cruise and Alphabet-owned competitor Waymo do little to convince me otherwise.
And, so, even when standing across the intersection from an autonomous vehicle, I still take a few steps back from the curb and don’t cross the street until it’s passed. It’s my standard MO when walking around San Francisco. Serious heebie-jeebies because not even pedestrians are safe.
The idea of robotaxis does bring a sense of “We’ve made it. We’re the Jetsons.” But in reality, robotaxis have provided such awe and wonder only to very few. There will need to be an exorbitant amount of public trust-building done before the robotaxi ride-hailing officially launches. As the saying goes, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Will Uber users be comfortable? It will be interesting to see the take rate when the in-app ride option becomes available. Cruise at your own risk.
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