On Tuesday, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tweeted a brief video of passengers from these two cities raving about its absolutely driverless automobiles as proof of a promise delivered. “Folks, we are entering the golden years of AV expansion,” he added.

To begin out, solely “friends and family” of Cruise staff could have entry to the corporate’s ridehail service, together with its absolutely driverless automobiles. But that may progressively develop to incorporate folks unaffiliated with Cruise. The firm opened waiting lists for each cities this week and expects to start providing rides as soon as it has sufficient automobiles to fulfill the demand, a spokesperson stated.

Earlier this 12 months, the corporate boasted that it might solely take “90 days” to go from “zero to driverless” as an indication of its potential to launch in new cities with out as a lot testing wanted as its authentic market, San Francisco. Indeed, it did take years for Cruise to launch its paid driverless taxi service in San Francisco.

The firm had initially deliberate to unveil a business service there in 2019 however failed to take action after figuring out the know-how wasn’t fairly prepared. The service later launched in 2022.

Cruise at the moment is working absolutely driverless automobiles in any respect hours in San Francisco — though it is just permitted to cost for these journeys at evening. The firm was authorized this week for a allow by the California DMV to develop its service space to incorporate all the metropolis of San Francisco.

Last week, the National Highway Traffic Administration stated it had opened an investigation into incidents by which laborious braking by Cruise automobiles has resulted in rear-end collisions and blocked visitors. The firm stated it welcomed the scrutiny, noting that its automobiles have triggered “zero life-threatening injuries or fatalities.”