“You could put on whatever music you want,” Prichard said. “You can take a nap if you want to, call your friends. It’s very much your own space.”
Next week, the company will begin testing with a backup safety driver behind the wheel in Houston. Dallas’ test routes will follow shortly after, but does not have a set time frame. Driverless rides to public riders are expected to be available in both cities soon. Prichard said the vehicles, Chevy Bolts, are equipped with lidar radar cameras and other sensors to provide a 360-degree view of everything around the car. The car feeds the data from the sensors into an artificial intelligence brain that powers the autonomous vehicle, giving real-time feedback.
Cruise plans to start with a small fleet and understand the needs of the community before it adds more. It’s looking to hire a local operations team, withWaymo opens a new self-driving trucking hub in Lancaster The company has a fleet of about 300 all-electric autonomous vehicles, powered by renewable energy. Cruise has raised $10 billion in capital commitments from investors like General Motors, Honda, Microsoft, T. Rowe Price and Walmart. The company also disclosed it has a $5 billion credit line with GM Financial, which gives the company the funding for early commercialization and scale.