Cruise has received a permit from the California DMV to remove the human backup drivers from its self-driving cars, following in Waymo’s footsteps.
Although Waymo announced the news last week, Cruise will be the first company to operate on the streets of a major U.S. city, launching the service in San Francisco before the end of the year.
Soon, you will be able to see fully electric and autonomous vehicles roaming around the streets of California. But this time, you will be able to jump into them as you please.
“This is where years of blood, sweat, and tears have been poured out by everyone on the Cruise mission. And it’s where over two million miles of city testing will truly hit the road for the first time: an electric car, driving by itself, navigating one of the most difficult driving cities in the world,” said Cruise CEO Dan Ammann in a blog post.
“And while it would be easier to do this in the suburbs, where driving is 30–40 times less complex, our cities are ground zero for the world’s transportation crisis. This is where accidents, pollution, congestion, and lack of accessibility collide. Often quite literally.”
