Uber and GM’s Cruise announced what they’re calling a “multiyear strategic partnership” on Thursday to offer driverless vehicles for hire—often called robotaxis—on the Uber platform. And while there are still a lot of things we don’t know about the program, from how much the rides will cost to what cities they’ll be available in, both companies say it’ll be up and running by next year.
Reached for comment on Thursday, a spokesperson for Cruise would only tell Gizmodo that the first city with robotaxis on the Uber platform in 2025 would be one of three cities: Phoenix, Arizona, Dallas, Texas or Houston, Texas. “Our focus remains on relaunching our own driverless app and service, the launch of this partnership will follow that,” the spokesperson said via email.
Uber has dabbled with self-driving vehicles on the roads as a viable alternative to human drivers, but the company’s efforts never took off. Back in 2017, Uber even signed a deal with Volvo to make that happen in a program that ultimately fizzled out. There were Uber robotaxis in Las Vegas in 2022, but they still had drivers behind the wheel. It’s clear that achieving reliable and safe self-driving capabilities in cars-for-hire at a wide scale has been a dream that several companies have been trying to make happen for over a decade.
“Cruise is on a mission to leverage driverless technology to create safer streets and redefine urban life,” Marc Whitten, CEO of Cruise, said in a statement published online. “We are excited to partner with Uber to bring the benefits of safe, reliable, autonomous driving to even more people, unlocking a new era of urban mobility.”
Cruise’s operating license had previously been suspended in California after an incident in October 2023 where a self-driving vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian who was jaywalking in San Francisco. Cruise paused operations but in June 2024 restarted rides in Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas.
The marketing pitch, rightly or wrongly, has always been that self-driving taxis are about making transportation safer while also cutting back on labor costs. Uber already “disrupted” the taxi industry by suppressing wages by just repeatedly breaking labor laws. But now that Uber has come to dominate the taxi industry, it only makes sense that it would want to throw those drivers out of work as well for maximum efficiency.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, just like the CEO of Cruise, played up the safety angle while pitching the idea on Thursday, completely ignoring the labor issues that might arise.
“As the largest mobility and delivery platform, we believe Uber can play an important role in helping to safely and reliably introduce autonomous technology to consumers and cities around the world,” Khosrowshahi said. “We’re thrilled to partner with Cruise and look forward to launching next year.”
Uber didn’t respond to questions about the timing and geographic availability of the cars in this upcoming program. Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back.
