Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company backed by General Motors and Honda, will launch its first international robot taxi service in Dubai. The company will begin testing its vehicles in the kingdom by 2023, with plans to launch a commercial service soon, though it has not set an actual date. The news was announced early Monday by Dubai’s Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed.
As part of the ride service, Cruise will use its fully autonomous Origin vehicles, which it first introduced in 2019. The company has no plans to use its Chevy Bolt electric vehicles it currently uses as part of its test fleet in San Francisco. .
The Origin is designed to be a shared vehicle, and when it goes into production, it has no controls that are commonly associated with human driving, such as a steering wheel or pedals. Cruise said the goal is to scale up to at least 4,000 vehicles in Dubai by 2030.
Cruise still aims for San Francisco to be its first market for its commercial robot taxi service. The company had planned to launch a commercial service in its hometown in 2019, but could not do so and has not yet announced a new date.
The Cruise Origin will start production at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant from 2022. In light of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the shared ride, Cruise recently unveiled a new set of safety protocols designed to keep people at a social distance during travel and disinfect the vehicle between fares.
Cruise is one of the best autonomous vehicle companies in the world that is capitalized. Over the past three years, the company has raised more than $ 9.25 billion from a number of investors, including SoftBank, Honda, GM, T. Rowe Price Group and Microsoft. Cruise is currently valued at $ 30 billion.
Dubai could be a natural fit for Cruise’s fully autonomous vehicles. The kingdom aims to have 20 percent of its journeys in autonomous vehicles by 2030. Dubai has also invited a number of urban aerospace companies, such as Volocopter, to test their electric aircraft.
Correction: Explain the launch plans in Dubai and correct the amount invested in Cruise so far. That’s $ 9.25 billion, not $ 7.4 billion as originally mentioned.