DALLAS — In Dallas, you could be catching a ride without a driver next year!
According to California based rideshare company 'Cruise,' their fleet of self-driving cars will be ready to pick up riders by early 2024.
The company has rolled out nearly 400 vehicles in Austin, Phoenix and San Francisco.
General Motors’ Cruise collaborates with cities, and maps surface streets where it will launch. We're told once that happens, the cars are tested with safety drivers until things are up and running.
In Austin, that took three months.
The company says it plans to target areas with high pedestrian traffic and active night life and expand from there.
Each car will be monitored 24/7 by a command and customer service to quickly resolve any issues.
Critics argue the technology isn't ready, with some of the strongest opposition coming from first responders. This comes after similar services in other major cities have caused traffic jams and interrupted some emergency responses.
Earlier this month, the City of San Francisco asked state regulators to pause the rollout of robotaxis - requesting more testing and regulations.
Officials also asked General Motors to “immediately” take some of its Cruse robotaxis off the road after autonomous vehicles were involved in two collisions – including one with an active fire truck this month.
Not too long after the state gave Cruise and another company permission to expand its hours of service to include overnight traffic, Cruise cars brought traffic to a standstill in one neighborhood.
The company said a music festival was to blame for disrupting the Wi-Fi to its vehicles.
Cruise says it works closely with regulators and local agencies to train first responders on how to report issues with fleet vehicles – in order to make interactions between the two as simple as possible.
Let us know what you think – will you be down to take a ride with no one behind the wheel?
As always, if you have a traffic concern in your area, you can email us here.
NOTE: The following video was recorded on Aug. 14.