GM-Backed Cruise Launches Driverless Ride Service In San Francisco

Cruise, the autonomous driving company backed by General Motors, is kicking off its long-awaited robotaxi service in San Francisco and will allow residents and visitors to take rides in its battery-powered fleet–with no human backup drivers–for free for the time being. 

The company, currently led by cofounder Kyle Vogt, said it opened up a waitlist today for people wanting to use the service, dubbed the Cruise Rider Community program. Cruise last year received approval from California to offer paid rides in its driverless vehicles, though it’s still working out some details related to fares, so it’s not initially charging for the service. 

Cruise’s move makes it the first autonomous tech company to offer robotic rides in California, where Alphabet’s Waymo is also preparing to launch a competing service. Waymo already offers fully autonomous rides in suburban Phoenix, though traffic conditions there are less dense and complex than in crowded San Francisco. 

Separately, the company said that SoftBank completed the investment of an additional $1.35 billion into it, part of an earlier plan. That boosts its total funding to $10 billion, coming from GM, Honda, Walmart and Microsoft, in addition to SoftBank.