Cruise joins Uber to help polish its dented robotaxi reputation

In an attempt to restore faith in its autonomous driving robotaxis, GM-owned Cruise is joining forces with Uber. The ride-hailing platform will integrate the services from Cruise into its platform next year, marking a pat on the back for the autonomous vehicle sector. The partnership, announced on August 22, will initially roll out in one undisclosed U.S. market, most likely the West Coast.

This collaboration comes at a crucial time for Cruise, which has been working to rebuild its reputation after a series of setbacks. In October last year, a Cruise vehicle was involved in an accident in San Francisco, where it dragged a pedestrian several meters along – even though the victim was initially hit by a human-crewed vehicle. Cruise halted its operations.

Probe into hard braking suspended

It had to. The incident led California regulators to revoke Cruise’s driverless license, citing the company’s failure to fully disclose the details of the crash. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was ongoing in its investigation into dangerous hard braking maneuvers from the Cruise fleet, but a recall involving almost 1 200 vehicles suspended that probe.

Cruise’s new partnership with Uber is a chance to regain momentum in a market that has become increasingly scrutinized. Following the October accident, the company’s CEO resigned, and GM announced plans to reduce investment in its AV unit. Cruise has since resumed supervised autonomous driving in Phoenix, with safety drivers on board, and is working to reassure regulators that its vehicles are safe.

Uber already deploys robotaxis from competitor Waymo. It’s a unique offering. With 700 vehicles operational, no other U.S. firm offers ride-hailing with autonomous cars. Uber sees growth opportunities in this niche and announced that autonomous ride-hailing grew sixfold in the month of July compared to the previous year.

Annoying honking behaviour

Both companies haven’t commented on the number of vehicles involved, but the strategy for Cruise is to be back up and running in 2025. Previously, Uber was developing its own self-driving division but sold it in 2020 to cut costs and sharpen its focus on core businesses like ride-hailing and food delivery. Waymo has been more successful, but not without drawbacks. San Francisco residents complain about confused Waymo cars honking at each other during the night, keeping entire neighborhoods awake. Waymo tried to fix the glitch with a software update but to no avail.

It shows that the AV space is turbulent, but interest is still strong. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is expected to unveil his delayed robotaxi product in October, a project that was prioritized over a budget-friendly EV dubbed Model 2.