Video: Cruise invites public to try driverless rides

People are invited to try free driverless taxi rides in San Francisco.

General Motors’ autonomous vehicle (AV) subsidiary Cruise has this week put a sign-up page on social media for people to reserve a free ride in one of its AVs in the California city.

That’s ahead of Cruise aiming to produce its robotaxi the Origin early in 2023, meanwhile using heavily modified Chevrolet Bolts.

Cruise interim chief executive Kyle Vogt says in a blog post this week it is the first to offer driverless taxis in a major US city and that the milestone triggered a US$1.35 billion investment from Softbank, which had already put US$900 million into Cruise.

Vogt says that will allow the company to expand its work force and scale up driverless technology in San Francisco and into other US cities.

It’s uncertain when Cruise expects the driverless taxi service to be fully operational and when charges will apply to AV rides.