Following up on plans to expand to new markets in the U.S., Cruise Automation, the autonomous driving wing of General Motors, is expanding robotaxi testing to the cities of Houston and Dallas, Texas.
This will bring Cruise’s ride-hailing robotaxi service up to five total cities: Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix.
The ride-hailing services are slated to start this month and will offer rides to employees first and later be open to the public once the service is established. A safety driver will be on board the vehicles, at least initially. When the safety driver is removed, Cruise will begin charging for rides, the company said.
Currently, the company has 300 cars operating across three cities and runs about 234 concurrently.
Late last year, Cruise said it was planning to scale up its operations to thousands of vehicles in several markets across the U.S. in 2023. This was after the company already began testing its autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona.
Cruise has been operating robotaxis in San Francisco, California, for the better part of a year and is one of a handful of companies that are allowed to charge for driverless ride-hailing services via the robotaxis in the city.
Cruise has also started testing its robotaxi ride-hailing services in Dubai, which it launched in July of last year.
