GM's Cruise Employees Test Autonomous Ride-Sharing App

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rgMekanic

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Employees of Cruise Automation, the self-driving startup acquired by GM last year is operating an autonomous ride-sharing service in San Francisco for employees. The service, called Cruise Anywhere, works like the Uber or Lyft app. Users request a ride and the nearest available car starts to drive to the location. Due to laws, an engineer is still required to be in the drivers seat, but most of the journies have been completed autonomously.

It's pretty amazing how fast driver-less car technology is accelerating (no pun intended). It's not something I'm personally interested in, as I am a driving enthusiast, I'm starting to see the potential in cities more and more.

Cruise uses the GM Bolt EV as its self-driving car of choice and expects to add another 100 vehicles to the fleet in the next few months. That should open up the app to more employees, though it may be over a year before the company is ready to open it up to everyday users.
 
Oy. Living in the bay area it's another car line to keep an eye out for (like student drivers).
 
Been saying this for a few years now.... It won't be long until the vast majority of people living in urban areas simply no longer own cars at all, and instead use a robotic Uber service. Not long after that most people living in the suburbs will cut back to just one owned car, and eventually to no car at all. This will work in large part because the systems running these cars will have a very good understanding of the need in each area so instead of requesting an Uber then waiting 3-10 minutes, you will request an Uber and it will be there before you can get your shoes tied, because the system will know, for example, that it needs to have 4 cars within the three block radius of your house at all times between 3pm-4pm on Saturdays.

Also of course, they will offer ride-sharing to greatly reduce the cost of your rides if you like, which will be especially effective for commuters.
 
arentol said:
Been saying this for a few years now.... It won't be long until the vast majority of people living in urban areas simply no longer own cars at all, and instead use a robotic Uber service. Not long after that most people living in the suburbs will cut back to just one owned car, and eventually to no car at all. This will work in large part because the systems running these cars will have a very good understanding of the need in each area so instead of requesting an Uber then waiting 3-10 minutes, you will request an Uber and it will be there before you can get your shoes tied, because the system will know, for example, that it needs to have 4 cars within the three block radius of your house at all times between 3pm-4pm on Saturdays.

Also of course, they will offer ride-sharing to greatly reduce the cost of your rides if you like, which will be especially effective for commuters.
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I don't see that happening here in the states. Will some take advantage of it? Yes. But our infrastructure/planning and society is built on longer distances than many other countries. There's too many variables when you don't have your own mode of transportation.
 
This stuff won't change life out in the country, but if you're within $20 of a major city, you can drive there and pay $40 for parking, or not own a car and pay $20 each way.

It changes how you organize errands - instead of planning 5 stops in a loop, you plan based on what you can grab with you hands in and out of a car that's pulled up to a curb and potentially blocking the way.

So it isn't perfect, nothing is. But add a "steamer trunk" on wheels that could dock with a self-driving 6-8 person bus, so I can take my "trunk" on errands, and it could be.

Meanwhile, 3+ years in a major city, and I only occasionally need to rent a truck or van for big trips.

For many, just saving some $$$ every month will quickly end the American love affair with cars, though obviously it depends on where you live and what you do for work
 
rgMekanic said:
It's pretty amazing how fast driver-less car technology is accelerating (no pun intended). It's not something I'm personally interested in, as I am a driving enthusiast, I'm starting to see the potential in cities more and more.
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I'm a driving enthusiasts and I'm very interested in it. Especially if they make retrofit kits. I'm going to the Nurburgring this weekend and it's a 4 hour drive. I'd love to be able to just, set the car to autonmous and go to sleep. Once I reach there, wake up, then drive. Be nice and well rested.

I'd probably never use autonomous features on a day to day basis. Just for trips. My 4+ hour trips to the mountains for snowboarding. My 1+ hour trips to car shows. Long distance driving is just boring. Mundane.
 
Nobody is a driving enthusiast sitting in friday afternoon traffic. Or driving the same monotonous highway segment every goddamn day sitting behind slow moving traffic.

Self driving cars can't happen fast enough for me. And even if I won't use it, the quality of traffic should improve tenfold as it gets wider adoption. No jerks or clueless idiots cutting traffic off causing a ripple of stop and go traffic.
 
krotch said:
I'm a driving enthusiasts and I'm very interested in it. Especially if they make retrofit kits. I'm going to the Nurburgring this weekend and it's a 4 hour drive. I'd love to be able to just, set the car to autonmous and go to sleep. Once I reach there, wake up, then drive. Be nice and well rested.

I'd probably never use autonomous features on a day to day basis. Just for trips. My 4+ hour trips to the mountains for snowboarding. My 1+ hour trips to car shows. Long distance driving is just boring. Mundane.
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Use better roads man, maps exist for a reason ;)
 
rgMekanic said:
Use better roads man, maps exist for a reason ;)
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That'd just increase my trip. I looked at doing that, but then it'd take me 6 hours to get to Nurburgring. I'd much rather be sleeping, since I'd have to wake up early to make the drive. Well...I'm just going to avoid driving on the day of and instead go a day earlier and crash in a hotel.
 
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