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Cruise Partners With Uber To Offer Driverless Rides (cnbc.com) 14

Uber and General Motors' Cruise have partnered to offer driverless rides to Uber users as early as soon as next year. CNBC reports: Both Cruise CEO Marc Whitten and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi hailed the partnership in a press release, stressing that the companies believe autonomous vehicles can be deployed safely. "Cruise is on a mission to leverage driverless technology to create safer streets and redefine urban life," Whitten said in the release. "We are excited to partner with Uber to bring the benefits of safe, reliable, autonomous driving to even more people, unlocking a new era of urban mobility." Khosrowshahi said in the release that Uber is "thrilled to partner with Cruise and look forward to launching next year."

On Uber's most recent earnings call, analysts asked the company how the emergence of robotaxis would likely impact the ridehailing giant's business long-term. Khosrowshahi said on the call that "AV players" experience much higher utilization with Uber than they do "without a network on a first-party basis." He also predicted there will be a "pretty long hybrid period as autonomous is developing and regulators are trying to figure out exactly how to regulate it." He added, "We don't think this will be a winner-take-all market."

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Cruise Partners With Uber To Offer Driverless Rides

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  • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Friday August 23, 2024 @08:47AM (#64728734)
    Making a ride-haling app is easy. Making a self-driving car is hard. Uber already failed at it. If Cruise can pull it off, they can do so with or without Uber.
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Making a ride-haling app is easy. Making a self-driving car is hard. Uber already failed at it. If Cruise can pull it off, they can do so with or without Uber.

      Network effects. Cruise could build an app for it, but then they'd well, need to hire people to build the app, write the server software and other stuff. Sure, it's not hard, but it's still something they might not have great experience in. Plus, payment systems, customer service, and other things.

      Then they need to market the app and service so people

  • uber has the funds to own and maintain cars?

  • For those of us who are following the driverless robotaxi saga:

    Musk was supposed to announce the Tesla robotaxi in August, but put it off until October because they wanted to make some design changes (to the front of the vehicle).

    Tesla has been really quiet about full self driving over the last few years, and in October it's possible they'll announce that FSD has been solved. Possibly "solved for certain optimal weather situations", but still "solved" for the largest use case of robotaxis. In 2019 they pred

    • Everybody can already see what Tesla has, and it's nowhere close to any sort of robotaxi service. It's not just suddenly going to take a quantum leap somehow.

      Waymo is who is getting it done. I don't think anybody else outside China is close.

  • If driverless cars worked, they would consolidate wealth, but as it stands, they are a threat to pedestrians, kids, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pets.
    • Got any non-anecdotal actual statistical evidence of that? With your attitude airplanes or cars wouldn't exist. Driverless cars are safer, going bonkers off of one-off incidents is stupid. When was the last time a driverless car was solely responsible for someone's death? Actually has it EVER been solely responsible for anyone's death?

    • they are a threat to pedestrians, kids, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pets

      Yeah, kind of like human drivers. Only thing is, driverless technology is improving all the time, human drivers aren't.

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