17 October, 2024
GM's Cruise robotaxis are back in Phoenix — but people are driving them
General Motors’ Cruise is redeploying robotaxis in Phoenix after nearly five months of paused operations, the company said in a blog post. The catch? The cars will be in “manual mode,” so they won’t be driving themselves.
Cruise will resume manual driving of its autonomous vehicles to create maps and gather road information in certain cities, starting with Phoenix, the company said Tuesday. The GM subsidiary already had a presence in Phoenix before it pulled its entire U.S.-based fleet last year following an incident in San Francisco that left a pedestrian stuck under and dragged by a Cruise robotaxi.
Prior to that incident, Cruise had been announcing launches in new cities — including Dallas, Houston and Miami — at a startling pace. Critics accused the company of expanding too fast and cutting corners on safety.
Today, we’re taking an important next step in returning to our mission: we're reintroducing a small fleet of human-driven vehicles in select cities – starting in Phoenix. These vehicles will create maps and gather road information, a critical step for validating future…
— cruise (@Cruise) April 9, 2024
Now Cruise appears to be going back to basics, a sharp pivot away from the aggressive growth strategy the company has been pursuing for the last few years. In 2022, former Cruise CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt — who stepped down amid last year’s controversy — told investors that Cruise had “de-risked the technical approach” by applying what worked well in San Francisco to similar ride-share markets.
In a blog post published Tuesday that reads like it could have been written in 2018, Cruise explains how it needs to first identify high-fidelity location data for road features and map information like speed limits and lane paint so that the AV can understand where it is in relation to its environment. The post then goes on to chart out how Cruise will eventually make it back to fully autonomous operations: slowly, supervised by humans, and with continuous validation of the technology.
All of these steps are part and parcel of building and expanding a self-driving car business, which leaves us wondering if Cruise is spelling out the obvious for the public’s benefit, or if its new safety team is scrapping its old technology and starting over?
A Cruise spokesperson declined to comment on the company’s strategy.
The October incident wasn’t the first time Cruise’s technology has caused problems. Even as Cruise expanded to new cities in the second half of 2023, its robotaxis were routinely malfunctioning in cities like San Francisco and Austin, disrupting the flow of traffic, public transit and first responders.
Technological issues aside, what really put Cruise in hot water late last year was its response to the incident. Regulators accused the company of withholding information about the crash, only sharing that a Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been flung into its path after first being struck by a human-driven vehicle. An internal report conducted by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and released in January confirmed that Cruise employees weren’t forthcoming with what happened after the Cruise vehicle ran over the pedestrian, only sharing days later that the robotaxi’s pullover maneuver resulted in the pedestrian being dragged for 20 feet.
The mishandling of the information resulted in parent company GM slashing spending and taking greater control of Cruise.
A big part of Cruise’s strategy moving forward, as outlined in Tuesday’s blog post, involves reforming and establishing updated incident response and crisis management protocols to ensure more efficient and transparent responses in the future. The company says it will also work on improved engagement with first responders to facilitate trainings in each precinct it plans to operate in.
Cruise has not announced when or where it will resume driverless operations. The company’s main operations were historically based in San Francisco, but Cruise lost its permits to operate there following the accident. Cruise began expanding its paid service area in the Phoenix area in August 2023. Alphabet’s Waymo — Cruise’s main competitor that’s still active in San Francisco — has operated a paid, driverless robotaxi service in the area since 2020 and last year doubled its service area in downtown Phoenix and launched driverless rides to the airport.
TechCrunch Mobility: Cruise robotaxis return and Ford's BlueCruise comes under scrutiny
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free.
It was another wild week in the world of transportation, particularly in the EV startup and automated driving industries. Sure, Cruise got our attention by announcing a return of sorts. But there’s a lot more to read about, including Indian ride-hailing giant Ola exiting the U.K., Australia and New Zealand; a feature on a New York–based startup that wants to bring curbside EV charging to lampposts; Uber Eats launching a TikTok-like video feature; and contract manufacturer Magna piloting humanoid robots developed by Sanctuary AI.
Oh, one more thing — reporter Rebecca Bellan is back! I know readers missed her, so show her a bit of love by sending her some tips at [email protected].
Let’s go!
A little bird
Founders, investors, engineers, policy wonks and others tell us things. And we’re here to pass along the verifiable information that those little birds have shared with us.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected], Sean O’Kane at [email protected] or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected]. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps.
Deal of the week
Just a bunch of deals this week!
Basemark, a Finnish company that developed AR and computer vision software used by automakers, raised €22 million ($23.6 million) in a Series B round led by ETF Partners. Other backers include Finnish Industry Investment, Constructor Capital, Business Finland, the European Innovation Council and private investors.
Bumper, an automotive fintech startup sector, raised £2 million in a Series B extension round that included backing from Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures.
Carrar, an Israeli startup that provides battery modules and thermal management systems for EVs, raised $5.3 million in a Series A round that included new investors Salida B.V., OurCrowd, and NextGear, as well as current backers Gentherm, NextLeap Ventures, Dive Digital and others.
Exoes, a French-based startup that developed battery cooling technology for EVs, raised €35 million ($37.5 million) from BpiFrance and Meridiam Green Impact Growth Fund.
HysetCo SAS, a startup that rents hydrogen-powered EVs to taxi drivers in Paris, raised nearly €200 million ($218 million) in a round led by Hy24. Raise Impact and Eiffel Investment Group also participated.
Yoshi Mobility, a Nashville-based startup that developed an app to offer drivers preventative maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging, raised $26 million in a Series C round led by General Motors Ventures. Bridgestone Americas, Universal Motors Agencies and Shikra Limited also participated.
Notable reads and other tidbits
ADAS
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the driver of a Ford Mustang Mach-E who crashed into a stationary car in Texas in February was using the hands-free driver-assistance system known as BlueCruise. This is the first known fatality resulting from a crash involving the use of BlueCruise. The NTSB announcement came a day after the safety board announced it’s probing a second fatal crash near Philadelphia where Ford’s driver-assistance system may have been active.
Autonomous vehicles
GM’s self-driving car subsidiary Cruise is back. Sort of. The company is redeploying robotaxis, but not in its home city of San Francisco. Instead, Cruise is setting up shop in Phoenix and all of its autonomous vehicles will be driven manually by employees. Here’s the odd part: Cruise says it will be creating maps and gathering road information in Phoenix, a city where it has had a presence (and has driven autonomously) since at least 2020. That means it has mapped these roads before.
Going all the way back to mapping has me a bit confused. Is this theater or does Cruise see a need to restart its entire process due to concerns about the underlying technology?
Cruise has also petitioned California regulators to reinstate its permits to operate in San Francisco. Will we see the company mapping its hometown yet again, or will it jump back in with a robotaxi service?
Meanwhile, Waymo officially launched paid rides in Los Angeles this week. We previously reported on California regulators’ approval of the Alphabet-owned company to charge for its robotaxi service in the city. The service is starting out small and will build based on demand and performance metrics, a Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Electric vehicles, charging & batteries
Elon Musk’s decision to green-light a robotaxi over an affordable EV might cost the company its lead, TC reporter Tim De Chant writes.
Exponent Energy, the Indian battery-tech company that claims to have developed 15-minute charging technology, has partnered with auto manufacturer Omega Seiki Mobility to deliver a passenger three-wheel EV with those rapid-charging capabilities.
Faraday Future is now grappling with two internal whistleblowers. Both former employees have filed lawsuits claiming the troubled EV company has been lying about some of the few sales it has announced to date. They also claim founder Jia Yueting has “weaponized” the EV startup’s HR department to retaliate against anyone who speaks up about these alleged misrepresentations.
Lucid Motors delivered more EVs in the first quarter of 2024 than it has in any other quarter, though it set the record by a very slim margin.
Tesla dropped the monthly subscription price of its “Supervised FSD” (formerly known as “FSD Beta”) to $99, down from $199, in a bid to get more dollars and data from drivers.
Ride-hail
Lyft and Uber said they will pause on their planned exit from Minneapolis after city officials decided to delay the start of a driver pay raise by a couple of months.
Miscellaneous
Check out this deep dive into Neural Concept, a company that’s using AI to help engineers make more aerodynamic vehicles for racing, automotive and aerospace industries.
This week’s wheels
I’m back in a Mercedes EV, this time a 2024 Mercedes EQE 350 4MATIC. The model retails at $77,900, not including the destination fee. The version I drove came in at $97,615, due to all sorts of options, like a 10-degree rear axle steering system, head-up display, air suspension, AMG exterior and a $1,250 driver-assistance system.
There are a number of improvements from the previous model year, including a new braking system, a heat pump to help improve driving efficiency in winter conditions, a 20-mile improvement in battery range, 20-inch wheels, power opening port door for charging and a better user interface (in my opinion) on the central infotainment.
What I really wanted to try was the advanced driver-assistance system, and specifically the automatic lane change feature, which I had yet to test.
Within the infotainment center, the driver can choose either “manual” or “automatic” lane change options. When the automatic feature is selected and the ADAS is on, the vehicle will make automatic lane changes without driver input. Here’s how it works. I was driving in the right lane on the highway with ADAS engaged. As the car approached slower traffic, an arrow appeared on the instrument cluster (see photo), the system turned my indicator on and then made the lane change. This can be overridden by holding the steering wheel and keeping it in the lane.
My thoughts? The system worked seamlessly and I could see using it on occasion. The question is whether drivers want to cede that kind of control.
Waymo's robotaxis under investigation after crashes and traffic mishaps
Waymo’s autonomous vehicle software is under investigation after federal regulators received 22 reports of the robotaxis crashing or potentially violating traffic safety laws by driving in the wrong lane or into construction zones.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) says the probe is intended to evaluate the software and its ability to avoid collisions with stationary objects, and how well it detects and responds to “traffic safety control devices” like cones. The investigation is designated as a “preliminary evaluation,” which the ODI tries to resolve within eight months.
“NHTSA plays a very important role in road safety and we will continue to work with them as part of our mission to become the world’s most trusted driver,” Waymo said in a statement to TechCrunch.
It’s the second investigation into autonomous vehicles that ODI has publicly announced in the last two days. On Monday, ODI opened a probe into Amazon-backed Zoox’s AVs after receiving two reports of the company’s autonomous-equipped Toyota Highlanders being rear-ended by motorcycles after the SUVs unexpectedly triggered the brakes.
The investigation into Waymo’s software also comes just three months after Waymo issued its first-ever recall of its autonomous software, after two of its vehicles crashed into the same towed pickup truck in Phoenix, Arizona.
The company’s robotaxis have had enough trouble with construction sites that videos of these mishaps have regularly gone viral. Some of these are cited in ODI’s report, like when one of Waymo’s robotaxis drove off a paved roadway into a construction zone in Phoenix last October and sustained underbody damage.
There are more typical fender-benders cited, too. In San Francisco, California last year, one of Waymo’s AVs was waiting to merge into traffic when it decided to re-route. As a result, one of its exterior sensors clipped an SUV. In a May incident in San Francisco, a Waymo AV ran into the bumper of a parked car while trying to execute a “pullover maneuver.”
Many of the crashes cited in ODI’s report, though, tend to cite more mundane encounters.
There are multiple examples where Waymo’s robotaxis had trouble navigating automatic gates at parking complexes. At times, Waymo’s AVs crashed into the gates. In a February incident in Arizona, the Waymo AV encountered a closed gate and, when turning to leave the area, backed into parking spikes and popped its tire. In another from November, a Waymo AV crashed into a chain separating part of a parking lot.
While these aren’t life-and-death scenarios, they help illustrate the hard — and hard-to-predict — corner cases that stand in the way of truly autonomous vehicles.