Employees of Cruise, General Motors' self-driving subsidiary, will be the first to be able to move in one of the company's autonomous vehicles operating in San Francisco, without a driver in the front seat. Some San Francisco residents will also be able to travel, but the company will not charge a fare.
The cofounder Cruise's CTO and president, Kyle Vogt, uploaded a video to YouTube where he summoned one of his company's self-driving vehicles and drove around the city of San Francisco as if it were a taxi.
Reported on Twitter : "Around 23:00 on Monday night we released an AV without any drivers inside, for the first time. So far we have tested with people in the position of driver or co-driver, so this was the first attempt. He started wandering around the city, waiting for a walk request. At 23:20 I used the Cruise app and called it for my first ride. After a few minutes, one of the Cruise AVs (named Sourdough) came to me. No one was in the car. I pressed the "start ride" button and the AV returned to traffic smoothly ".
Vogt also said he drew five more walks that night. The rides had to take place at night because under the terms of Cruise's "driverless development permit" from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the company can only operate without a driver between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and with a maximum speed 30 miles per hour.
Cruise received the license in early October, which allows the company to deploy its unmanned vehicles inside, as well as charge fees for product delivery services, but not taxi services.
GM CEO Mary Barra said Cruise will begin commercial driverless pickup and delivery operations by next year. Cruise has yet to apply for the final permit it needs, which will be from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), to be able to charge for the services robotic axis. Until then, only Cruise employees and certain San Francisco residents will be able to ride the AVs, but without fare.
As you can see, companies are pushing for autonomous vehicles. And apparently in the near future they will enter everyday life. Starting from the rich European and American cities they will also come to Greece.
