GM and DoorDash Announce Self-Driving Cars Delivering Food In San Francisco

"General Motors is partnering with DoorDash to enable on-demand food deliveries via driverless cars," reports VentureBeat.

An anonymous reader quotes their report: The duo announced that a pilot delivery program will kick off in San Francisco in "early 2019," and will involve both meals from restaurants and groceries.... Back in 2016, GM splashed out more than $1 billion to buy Cruise Automation, a startup that developed an autopilot system for existing cars. In the intervening months, the company has been doubling down on its autonomous car efforts, last year announcing a driverless car with no steering wheel or pedals, with plans to launch the vehicle sometime in 2019. Elsewhere, GM also revealed that it is investing $100 million into facilities for building self-driving cars, while Honda recently put $2 billion into GM's Cruise for a 5.7 percent stake....

GM and DoorDash haven't revealed the full extent of the pilot or what the next stage will be, but it did say that "select merchants" that are already using DoorDash in the San Francisco area are on board. The underlying purpose, it said, is to "test and improve" the efficiency of autonomous deliveries in the area. "We see autonomous vehicles playing a major role in the future of delivery as consumer behaviors continue to shift online, and we are confident Cruise's leading technology will help us scale to meet growing consumer demand," noted DoorDash CEO Tony Xu.

Re:

[Scarletdown]

This could be a lucrative opportunity for GM to partner with the makers of Grinder, that phone app for arranging illicit sandwich hookups.

Dammit, now I'm craving a philly cheesesteak sub.

Delivery by self-driving car?

[dlleigh]

So I'll have to walk out to the curb to get my delivered food?

I thought technology was supposed to save me all that physical effort.

Re:

[fluffernutter]

Seems to be quite a show stopper doesn't it?

Re:

[wyattstorch516]

They're not saying you have to put your pants on or anything like that at least.

Mm self driving dinner

[fluffernutter]

Are you allowed to eat the mangled deer in the grill?

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[mentil]

Grill, yes. Grille, no.

no steering wheel or pedals = Liability for who?

[Joe_Dragon]

no steering wheel or pedals = Liability for who?.

and no an EULA can't move criminal Liability

Re:

[fluffernutter]

The only thing that makes sense is for the liability to go to the automaker. It doesn't really matter if they have people sitting behind remote steering wheels with a camera image, or their AI solution; they are saying they want to be your driver and they do not believe you need any local control of the vehicle. Therefore the responsibility rests with them.

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[alvinrod]

Seems to make more sense to place the liability on whatever business or person is ordering the vehicle around. Naturally they'll pay an insurance company to to handle that for them. I suspect that some government agency will also seek to exert some manner of control over self-driving vehicles and might occasionally require particular models to be "grounded" much like that FAA does with airplanes if they have cause to believe there's a flaw that makes additional accidents likely.

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[fluffernutter]

Uh, no. If the car is advanced enough to drive itself, it can be expected to be fully capable of validating the directions that the user enters for safety and refuse to act on directions that are dangerous. If the person can't control the car, I don't see what commands they can give other than next stop point.

Re:no steering wheel or pedals = Liability for who

[93 Escort Wagon]

Actually, what I wonder is - without a steering wheel, how do you manually get it off the road if it breaks down or is in an accident which disables the engine? I’ve been directly or indirectly involved in both situations (with “normal” cars, of course).

You can't arrest a corporation

[DogDude]

and no an EULA can't move criminal Liability

Hahahahahahaha. You must not be American. In the US, people who run companies are more likely to get hit by lightning than get arrested. Corporations are free to break just about any law. They may get a financial penalty, but that's about it.

124 dead people. Zero arrests. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Automation Good?

[mentil]

Wait I thought automation was BAD for General Motors? [slashdot.org] Which is it, Slashdot?! Tell me what to think!

Re:

[alvinrod]

That article was saying that the automation was internally bad for them (which I think is a bad argument to begin with as well as wrong, but that's another issue) whereas this is them selling an automated solution to others, which if you follow the logic suggests that it would hurt the company that buys the product and not GM. Presumably, the company that sold the automation to GM profited from doing so.

Confused by these companies

[qzzpjs]

Why are all these companies so obsessed with unemploying all their drivers? Self driving cars, drones, trucking, AI, etc. Governments are working hard to get people jobs and the corporations are trying harder to fire them all.

They're also forgetting that some people that use food delivery services now could have some disability that prevents them from leaving their home in the first place. How are they supposed to get to this vehicle to get their stuff?

Re: Confused by these companies

[Type44Q]

Why are all these companies so obsessed with unemploying all their drivers?

There are incomes to pilfer.

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[fluffernutter]

You got that backwards. These corporations just want to beckon these people into the emerging industry of AI delivery vehicle repair, one of the many lucrative positions being created by the AI economy. AI will generate a need for all kinds of new skills, you know.

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[alvinrod]

Why are all these companies so obsessed with unemploying all their drivers? Self driving cars, drones, trucking, AI, etc. Governments are working hard to get people jobs and the corporations are trying harder to fire them all.

Because their customers always want the same goods and services for a lower price. It isn't that these companies want to do this, it's that if they don't, they'll go out of business. Companies which fail to adapt to the changing market are replaced by those that do.

I also speculate that in the short term that automated vehicles will actually increase the number of human drivers necessary. That may seem paradoxical at first, but if you think about it, it makes a certain amount of sense. The best use for a

Re:

[wyattstorch516]

What do they do if the house is on fire?

Oh boy!

[Chas]

So now, instead of actually having it delivered, you STILL have to go out onto the streets, risk discarded drug needles and the statistical 2 piles of human excrement per block.

JOY!

Nice

[nospam007]

A self-driving car that dashes with my food to my apartment-door on the 7th floor?
Cute!