Cruise has been in the press a lot in the past few days!
Cruise Looks To The Skies As It Readies Robotaxi Service by Alan Ohnsman, in Forbes
Particularly on the operations side, Cruise has recently hired several hire profile veterans of the airline industry. Senior Vice President Gil West explains why:
“There’s safety. The aviation model is important here with an approach and processes that were developed over the last 100 years. That overlaps with exactly what we’re doing in the autonomous space. Airlines are operationally intensive, and that’s the goal for Cruise, with high-tech vehicles engineered right for a purpose—airplanes and autonomous vehicles.”
West also provides the most specific public information I’ve yet seen regarding when Cruise will launch a commercial ridesharing service: “It’s months, not years.”
Honda Begins Testing Chevy Bolt-Based Cruise AV With A View To Creating Mobility Service In Japan by Sebastian Bell, in Carscoops
Honda invested heavily in Cruise several years ago, and this article provides an update on that relationship.
The first step in bringing autonomous vehicles to Japan is that Honda and Cruise will work together to create high-definition maps of specific geographic areas. That will then facilitate actual AV testing.
“Although these early tests are being conducted by both Honda and Cruise, the Japanese automaker plans to create its own autonomous vehicle service in Japan. That said, it will still use the Cruise Origin, a vehicle jointly developed by it, Cruise, and GM.”
How Cyclists On The Cruise Workforce Help Make Its AVs Safer by Sam McEachern, in GM Authority
GM Authority (which, to be clear, is not affiliated with General Motors, it’s an independent publication) adds a little bit of color to this great video Cruise produced. Engineers and other Cruisers who live, work, and bicycle in San Francisco, play an important role in developing the driving stack to interact safely with cyclists.
The video features, among other Cruisers, Jeremy Allen, with whom I work in the Cruise Planning & Controls Directorate.
David Silver 