Cruise relaunched its Dallas service with manual drivers and no public passengers this week. It's the first step toward bringing the autonomous robotaxi service back to roadways after a California crash last year.General Motors’ autonomous taxi company Cruise began a soft launch in Dallas this week more than a year after it made its initial debut in the city.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing service will use manually driven vehicles without autonomous systems engaged for now, and is only testing the service in a limited geographical area,in the fall, the company suffered a major setback after a crash that involved a Cruise taxi dragging a pedestrian in San Francisco in October.
That led Cruise to recall nearly 1,000 vehicles and pause its robotaxi service nationwide. It’s been in talks with Dallas staff since late April about its revised approach following the incident, “which includes a greater emphasis on safety protocols,” the memo cites. Cruise announced leadership changes since last year, including appointing a new chief safety officer in February.
Dallasites will not be able to hail a ride yet, since the taxis won’t carry public passengers during the first phase of reintroduction. Next for Cruise is an expansion into supervised autonomous driving with a safety driver behind the wheel. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about a timeline for the expansion.
Cruise began conducting the first of several “extensive” training sessions for Dallas first responders Friday. The memo did not clarify what the tests involved.Gus Khankarli, director of Dallas’ transportation department, did not respond to requests for an interview or comment about the move Monday.GM had high hopes for Cruise before the October incident.