GM's Cruise Robotaxis Return to Dallas Streets for Testing, Driverless Taxi Service To Resume 'Later'

After a pause of several months, GM’s Cruise robotaxis are back on Dallas streets with human “safety drivers” monitoring behind the wheel, testing routes in the runup to public, driverless operations sometime in the future.

That’s according to the New York Times, which reported Tuesday that Cruise has also resumed testing in Houston and Phoenix. Cruise had previously posted June 3 on X that it had started driving in Dallas again “as we continue to validate our self-driving technology against our rigorous safety and performance standards.”

As Dallas Innovates told you last November, Cruise’s robotaxi operations in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Francisco were suspended following an October 2 incident in San Francisco involving a pedestrian. (After being struck by a hit-and-run human driver, a woman fell into the path of a Cruise robotaxi. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, which cited a California DMV report, the Cruise vehicle braked hard to a stop, and then did a “pullover maneuver,” resulting in the woman being dragged underneath the vehicle about 20 feet at a slow rate of speed. The woman suffered “severe injuries” from the incident, according to the Chronicle.)

In November, Cruise announced in a blog post that it had issued a voluntary software recall affecting its entire driverless fleet.

GM acquired Cruise for $1B in 2016

Cruise robotaxis have begun testing in Dallas without a human in the front seat. [Photo: Cruise]

Launched in 2013, San Francisco-based Cruise was acquired by General Motors in 2016 for $1 billion

GM CFO Paul Jacobson told the New York Times that Cruise is using autonomous versions of the electric Chevrolet Bolt and that the company has suspended indefinitely the use of GM’s van-like Origin robotaxi, which transports passengers without a steering wheel or pedals anywhere to be seen.

“We think from a regulatory perspective, and also from a cost perspective, at this point in time, we think the Bolt is a better solution,” Mr. Jacobson added in a conference call with reporters, according to the Times.

GM said that the robotaxis won’t be carry paying passengers at this time, though the company “hopes to open the service to customers later,” the Times added.

Dallas Innovates first told you about Cruise’s testing operations in Dallas last October.