Cruise, a company that specializes in testing and developing autonomous car technology, may soon be coming to Dallas, according to job listings posted by the company.
CEO Kyle Vogt said recently that Cruise was now fully-operational in San Francisco, where the company launched in 2021, and that public rides will be implemented “very soon,” according to Electrek.
“Operating robotaxis in SF has become a litmus test for business viability. If it can work here, there’s little doubt it can work just about everywhere. You’ll soon see us open up full operations in other cities,” Vogt wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“The capabilities and machine learning systems we’ve built to handle things in SF have proven themselves in many other cities around the world. As part of our measured and data-driven approach to expansion, and in accordance with our rigorous safety policies, we will be rolling this out in stages. First with employees, and with members of the public very soon,” he continued.
Cruise has already begun expanding into various cities, including, most recently, Austin and Phoenix.
The San Francisco-based company, which started in 2013, has received support from auto giant General Motors, who Vogt also thanked in the recent LinkedIn post.
Autonomous driving has gotten off to a somewhat shaky start, with some so-called self-driving vehicles crashing or killing pedestrians.
An Arizona Uber driver will go on trial in June for a March 2018 crash in which her self-driving vehicle allegedly killed a 49-year-old woman who was walking a bicycle across a crosswalk.
Rafaela Vasquez, 49, was charged with negligent homicide in the incident, according to AP News.
She was allegedly streaming the television show The Voice and was looking down at her phone shortly before the time of the crash.
Still, according to SafetyCulture, studies have shown that autonomous vehicles are safer than those driven by humans.
One of the risks SafetyCulture points out, however, is that motorists may become more reckless due to their confidence in the autonomous vehicle, which could create hazardous situations.
