In August, we outlined how Tesla’s Full-Self Driving cars were under some heat from the California DMV. The DMV was probing Tesla’s on whether their autonomous cars were violating state regulations.
As of September 30th, the California DMV approved vehicle deployment permits for the GM-backed Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo fully autonomous car services. This is a major step in the right direction for these self-driving car services to be on California city streets and public roads. According to cnbc.com, there are still some more hurdles to get through for Cruise and Waymo to be fully launched in the Golden State.
“It allows the companies to charge a fee and receive compensation for autonomous services offered to the public, such as ride-hailing, in certain areas.
The companies still need approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, according to the California DMV. Still, it means the companies are one step closer to providing services to the general public outside of a testing program.”
There have been testing car fleets going on in California for both these services. However, these testings have specific guidelines the cars must follow. Waymo testing fleets can only go out in parts of San Mateo and San Francisco counties for now. Plus, the vehicles cannot go above 65 miles per hour, including rain or light. As for Cruise, their cars are only tested in the San Francisco area as well. They can only be on public roads in the hours between 10 pm and 6 am. Their speed restriction is far less than Waymo, as their cars cannot go over 30 miles per hour.
Waymo and Cruise have been at the forefront of commercial full-driving vehicles, and their trajectory into getting approved by the California DMV was fairly swift as they both began their application process only a few months ago.
“In May, both Waymo and Cruise applied for permits to begin charging for rides and delivery. Cruise applied to not have a safety driver present, while Waymo applied to have a safety driver, Reuters reported.
In June, Cruise earned a permit enabling it to offer driverless rides to passengers in test vehicles in California. Waymo opened self-driving car testing to some San Francisco residents through a program dubbed “Trusted Tester” last month.”
It is definitely an exciting time for these two car services. A lot has gone in to make sure these vehicles provide excellent services to California residents, but safety is also an extreme priority for all involved.
“Today’s approval from the California DMV makes Cruise the first autonomous ride-hail company to receive a driverless deployment permit in the state. It brings us one step closer to achieving our mission to make transportation safer, better, and more affordable in cities with our fleet of all-electric, self-driving and shared vehicles,” Rob Grant, Cruise senior vice president of government affairs and social impact, said in an emailed statement to CNBC.”
Meet Cruise
Let’s take a look at the self-driving car service Cruise in more depth. They are backed by General Motors and are also involved in partnerships with Honda, Microsoft, Walmart, and Softbank. Some big-time companies truly believe that Cruise is a true pioneer car service, and it sure has the look of it.
Cruise was founded back in September of 2013, a childhood dream fulfilled by Kyle Vogt. Now eight years later, Cruise is on the verge of becoming the next big thing in the car service industry. Their mission is “Improving life in our cities” and with their incredible full autonomous vehicles, Cruise will certainly do just that.
Meet Waymo
On the same upward trajectory in the self-driving car service industry is Waymo. Their journey began all the way back in 2009, as only a Google self-driving car project. From there, they were the world’s first fully autonomous ride on public roads in 2015. They were established and partnered with Alphabet as an independent, autonomous driving technology company in 2017.
Now four years later, Waymo has expanded with different levels of their autonomous vehicles, including multiple self-driving services in different states and truck testing. California is the next stop on its self-driving car mission with its “Trusted Tester” program in the San Francisco area.
Waymo is always seeing the road ahead. Their mission statement from their website:
“Waymo’s mission is to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going. From moving people to moving goods, we’re taking autonomous driving to new places. Our mission is big and our work has the potential to transform lives.”
The future is now for California and these two self-driving car services. Soon enough, you’ll be seeing Cruise and Waymo vehicles in a city near you.
For the full article, visit: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/30/waymo-and-cruise-get-california-dmv-approval-to-run-driverless-cars.html
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