In September, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt announced that before the year ends, they will be launching commercial robotaxi services in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona.
Now, Cruise is delivering on its promise as it announced on Tuesday that it has begun offering its driverless taxi service in the said cities, according to The Verge.
The service uses retrofitted Chevrolet Bolt EVs. Currently, it is available in three cities in the US after the service was launched in San Francisco, California over the summer.
Robotaxi Services is Initially Available Only to Friends and Family of Cruise Employees
Vogt tweeted on Tuesday that the company has completed its first paid rides for members of the public in both Phoenix and Austin, according to CNET.
Cruise's CEO also said that just like what the company did in San Francisco, they've started with a small service. But they have plans to expand gradually in the future.
He added that after their experience in San Francisco, the rollout is expected to be much faster in these new cities.
His tweet is accompanied by a short video of passengers from those two cities who are raving about Cruise's fully driverless vehicles.
Initially, the robotaxi services will only be available to the "friends and family" of Cruise employees. However, the company says that it would gradually grow to include people who are unaffiliated with Cruise.
According to the spokesperson of the company, this week, it opened waiting lists for both cities. It expects to start offering rides once it has enough vehicles to meet the demand.
As a demonstration of its ability to launch robotaxi services in new cities without conducting much testing as its original market, Cruise announced earlier this year that to go from "zero to driverless," it would only take 90 days.
With the rollout of robotaxi services in Austin and Phoenix, the company was able to prove that 90 days is all it takes to bring driverless service to new cities.
Cruise Expands Service Area to the Entire City of San Francisco
Cruise had originally planned to launch a commercial service in San Francisco in 2019. However, because the technology was not quite ready, it failed to proceed with the launch. Eventually, the service was launched in 2022.
Currently, Cruise is operating its robotaxi services at all hours in San Francisco. However, according to The Verge, the company is only permitted to charge for those trips at night.
This week, the California DMV approved the company's permit to expand its service area. Now, the service area includes the entire city of San Francisco.
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation concerning a Cruise vehicle. According to the agency, a hard braking Cruise vehicle has resulted in rear-end collisions and blocked traffic.
Concerning this, Cruise said that it is open for investigation. But the company noted that its vehicles have caused "zero life-threatening injuries or fatalities."
Cruise expansion in the two cities comes amid increasing scrutiny of autonomous vehicles. For instance, California's Department of Motor Vehicles accused electric carmaker Tesla of false advertising in August.
According to the department, Tesla is promoting its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features as providing autonomous vehicle control.
Related Article: Cruise is Set to Launch Robotaxi Services in Texas Within the Year
