GM Cruise takes first fares for paid driverless taxi in San Francisco
GM’s autonomous driving division, Cruise, has begun its paid driverless taxi service in San Francisco and officially took its first fares last night.
Cruise has been operating a free driverless taxi service in the area since earlier this year (and got pulled over once), but last night it began charging for this service. Both Cruise and its rival Waymo, a division of Google’s parent company Alphabet, have been hoping for some time to start charging for autonomous taxi rides in California. Waymo got permission in February but has not yet started charging fares.
Cruise’s program is still quite limited, only covering about a third of San Francisco with 30 cars. While anyone can sign up, Cruise is sending out limited invites for users given the limitations of their vehicle supply and geofenced area at the moment.
Driverless rideshares are officially here. @Lebeaucarnews speaks with Cruise CEO @kvogt. who's service launched in San Francisco last night. pic.twitter.com/28Oq1v2h3K
