Cruise To Offer Free Robo-Taxi Rides In San Francisco For the Public -- Without Back-Up Drivers

Cruise, the driverless spin-off from General Motors, said on Tuesday that it's about to offer public robot-taxi rides in its San Francisco hometown soon -- "within weeks, not months." In a first for San Francisco, Cruise's public rides will be fully driverless, with no back-up driver behind the wheel. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: It has been giving rides to its own employees sans backup driver since November, and has been test-driving truly driverless cars here since December 2020. Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, has been providing rides to some San Franciscans since August. [...] Cruise is now accepting applications from members of the public who want to hop into Poppy, Tostada or another of its self-driving Chevy Bolts. The company said it will pick names from the wait list in "weeks not months." Meanwhile it is already giving rides to some locals who were nominated by Cruise employees.

Cruise's rides for the public will run from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. and will be in the city's northwest quadrant -- including Nob Hill, the Fillmore, the Panhandle, the Sunset and the Richmond. For now, the rides from both services are free. Neither Cruise nor any other robot car company has permission from the California Public Utilities Commission to charge for rides, although Cruise applied for it in November.

Needs a soundtrack

[GrumpySteen]

I Can't Drive 55
Highway to Hell
Crash and Burn
Life in the Fast Lane
I Love It

I'm sure there are more, but those are the first ones that come to mind.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

Warm Leatherette [youtube.com]

Re:

[smokinpork]

Check out some of JJ Ricks videos on youtube.com. It's a van with automatic doors. It doesn't look wheelchair accessible, though. They have call center buttons in the car and in the app, they have road side assistance. They have procedures for dealing with things and people left in cars.

Re:Assisting passengers into vehicle?

[ShanghaiBill]

How does a driverless taxi help passengers into the vehicle as required by US law especially for ADA?

The ADA requires "reasonable accommodation."

If a reasonable person needs special accommodation, they will ask for it when they request the ride, and then a taxi that can provide that accommodation will be dispatched, likely with a driver.

This is how the system already works with human-driven taxis. Not all taxis can deal with every disability. It is the passenger's responsibility to request the accommodation.

Re: Assisting passengers into vehicle?

[antus]

what if they ask for it and a special taxi with a human is sent thus the service still provides it?

Let's get this out of the way shall we

[AlanObject]

This is all the fault of that evil scum Elon Musk.

In the middle of the night?

[MDMurphy]

11PM to 5AM gets all the drunks leaving the bars at the beginning of that shift. Who cleans up the back seat?

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

It looks like you have to sign up with them first, so if you mess up the taxi they will block you from booking again and probably bill you for the clean-up.

Re: In the middle of the night?

[Malays2 bowman]

And when the hackers use a compromised account to use the vehicle as their fuck boat and drug party den, this company...

does nothing

Security

[fermion]

With a driver, especially overnight, they can take evasive action, like run a red light, if there is danger. What is the driverless car going to do? If this were daytime trips, this might not be as much of an issue. But at night,Mathis seems like catnip for criminals.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Tesla has just been forced to recall 50k cars because their autopilot system doesn't always stop at intersections with stop signs.

Re:

[Local ID10T]

Stop living in fear.

Re:

[gweihir]

With a driver, especially overnight, they can take evasive action, like run a red light, if there is danger. What is the driverless car going to do?

You are overestimating the danger. Unless you are in a truly broken country like South Africa, running that red light is more dangerous.

OWI / DUI liability?

[Joe_Dragon]

With no driver the person who requested the cab may be seen has having actual physical control.

Even if the only real control is an e-stop button.
Or under the law actual physical control can = an app that can send the car to an location.

You can get an DUI ticket for sleeping in a car even when it's off.

Re:

[ArsenneLupin]

You can get an DUI ticket for sleeping in a car even when it's off.

That depends on the State. Sleeping under the influence [romanolawpc.com]. Also, it may depend on additional circumstances:

• Whether the engine is running or not
• The driver's position (front or back seat, driver or passenger's seat. In case of slouched position over several seats, the ass' position seems to be the one that matters)
• Whether there's evidence that the car was moved before the driver went to sleep.

Re: OWI / DUI liability?

[e3m4n]

Thats the sort of non helpful bullshit cops are known for. Some guy gets arrested for PI because he realizes he is too drunk to drive and walks home. Some guy sleeps in his back seat and gets charged with DUI when he intentionally chose to sleep instead of driving. Some guy gets a DUI for using a bicycle thus ensuring he isnt behind the control of a 2000+ lb vehicle. Cops seem more interested in revenue from tickets than the underlying issue of traffic accidents.

Re: OWI / DUI liability?

[Malays2 bowman]

And this is why this image comes to mind whenever people think of cops in plural:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/conte... [msu.edu]

Who wants to be the next Elaine Herzberg?

[Joe_Dragon]

Who wants to be the next Elaine Herzberg?

and who wants to be the next Safety driver to pin it on?

Follow That Car

[AntiMatt3r3]

I could hardly say, "Follow that car," so what else was I going to do?

I simply said "Amsterdam Avenue," because I knew it was the same direction the car in front was heading. It was late, I had just left the nightclub, and I was feeling quite tipsy. Needless to say, things didn't go to plan. The autotaxi replied with its off-the-peg voicefile, sounding all cheap and synthetic...

https://www.fictionontheweb.co... [fictionontheweb.co.uk]

Who cleans these between rides?

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

What happens when grandma sits down and gets a hepatitis/HIV needle in her ass?

Re: Who cleans these between rides?

[e3m4n]

Its SF so its a tossup between a needle or human feces.

Re:

[Amiga Trombone]

Why not both?

Who is going to insure these rides?

[Malays2 bowman]

You give the public access to anything like this, they will find a way to destroy it. Even if you armor the interior with prison grade materials.

  I expect a good chunk of the profits to be used to insure this fleet.

Re: Johnny Cab

[Malays2 bowman]

I hope they have a dummy in the driver's seat you can rip out in an emergency in order to access manual control.

Re:

[RespekMyAthorati]

e.g. AutoPilot [aolcdn.com]

Cruise?

[drinkypoo]

Cruise's rides for the public will run from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

...and will only go to the Castro.

Can't wait

[Malays2 bowman]

Until the news stories about how these taxis are trashed, shat in, pissed in, vomited in, cummed in, filled with used condoms, graffiti all over the interior, reeking of alcohol and hard drugs, parts ripped out from the inside, used needles in the seats, and ultimately hacked and stolen.

The taxis will have cameras

[aberglas]

And be monitored from a central point. So that can be dealt with.

Re:

[gweihir]

You have to sign up for these. And you will be monitored. So destruction will happen because some people are just like that and then they will pay for cleaning up the mess. Then the destruction will stop.

Re: Can't wait

[Malays2 bowman]

Using fake names, etc. There are those who take pride in "beating the system". And they also take pride in destruction.

  Unless they plan on realtime video monitoring and locking the miscreants in like a police bait car.

Rides after 11pm?

[kwelch007]

Who's gonna clean up the puke?