Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 24 January 2020

GM's Cruise heads down new road with

new robotaxi concept

General Motors' self-driving ees. race to build cars that can
car company will attempt By eliminating the need for drive themselves. Since
to deliver on its long-run- a human to drive, Cruise then, Cruise has attracted
ning promise to provide theoretically will be able to more than $6 billion from in-
a more environmentally offer a less expensive way vestors, including $2.75 bil-
friendly ride-hailing service to get around — a goal lion from Honda and $2.25
in an unorthodox vehicle already being pursued by billion from Japanese tech
designed to eliminate the self-driving car pioneer investment firm SoftBank.
need for human operators Waymo, a Google spinoff Honda also helped devel-
to transport people around that has been testing ro- op the Origin.
This undated image provided by Cruise shows a rendering of an crowded cities. botaxis in the Phoenix area GM currently values Cruise
unorthodox electric vehicle called "Origin," being developed The service still being devel- for nearly three years. at $19 billion, fueling spec-
by GM's Cruise subsidiary. oped by GM's Cruise sub- Cruise had planned to have ulation that the subsidiary
Associated Press sidiary will rely on a boxy, a robotaxi service consist- may eventually be spun off
electric-powered vehicle ing of Chevrolet Bolts work- as a publicly traded com-
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE called "Origin" that was ing without human backup pany.
AP Business Writer unveiled late Tuesday in drivers by the end of 2019, Whenever Cruise's ride-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco amid much but moved away from that hailing service makes its
fanfare. It looks like a cross last year after one of Uber's debut, it will still be chas-
between a mini-van and autonomous test vehicles ing Waymo, whose work on
sports utility vehicle with ran down and killed a pe- self-driving car technology
one huge exception — it destrian in the Phoenix sub- began inside of Google
won't have any steering urb of Tempe, Arizona, dur- more than a decade ago.
wheel or brakes. The Origin ing 2018. Waymo's Phoenix-area
will accommodate up to Still aware of the fallout service already has given
four passengers at a time, from that deadly crash, more than 100,000 rides,
although a single customer Cruise is promising "su- according to the compa-
will be able summon it for a perhuman performance" ny. It expanded beyond
ride just as people already from the Cruise, which GM the test phase service 13
can ask for a car with a hopes to manufacture at months ago with a ride-
human behind the wheel half the price of compa- hailing app that now has
from Uber or Lyft. rable vehicles using fuel- about 1,500 active monthly
For all the hype surround- combustion engines. riders, Waymo says.
ing the Origin's unveiling, GM also expects to an- By comparison, ride-hailing
Cruise omitted some key nounce where the Origin leader Uber now boasts
details, including when its will be made within the next about 103 million active
ride-hailing service will be few weeks, Cruise CEO Dan monthly users with a service
available and how many Amman said. that relies on human drivers
of the vehicles will be in its The Origin won't be sold to — a dependence that is
fleet. consumers though. "It is not the main reason the com-
The company indicated a product you can buy, but pany has been losing mon-
it will initially only be avail- an experience you share," ey throughout its history.
able in San Francisco, Amman said. Despite the fatal 2018 crash
where Cruise has already The Origin represents an- that stoked the public's
been offering a ride-hailing other significant step for worst fears about self-driv-
service that's only available Cruise, which had only ing cars, Uber is still trying to
to its roughly 1,000 employ- 40 employees when GM build a fleet of robotic taxis
bought it in 2016 as part of as part of its question to be-
its effort to catch up in the come profitable.q